State health officials have qualified their cancer-risk assessment of formaldehyde emissions from a proposed Rocklin funeral home.

On Friday, a health official clarified that formaldehyde emissions from the funeral home would pose a greater cancer risk only if humans were exposed to a certain level on a long-term basis.

The Rocklin City Council on Aug. 12 delayed a decision on the proposed Heritage Oaks Memorial Chapel after opponent Mark Crabtree presented an e-mail from a state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment toxicologist indicating the facility might be more dangerous than originally estimated.

Council members said they would wait until Placer County Air Pollution Control District senior engineer John Finnell had a chance to recheck his report.

Environmental Health Hazard Assessment spokesman Sam Delson said Friday, however, that toxicologist Melanie Marty had been given incomplete information and that her calculations would apply only to long-term exposure.

"Cancer risk estimates cannot be estimated based on short-term peak exposure information," Delson said in an e-mail to The Bee. "It is my understanding that Mr. Finnell has now clarified that the formaldehyde concentration referred to was indeed a short-term peak exposure, not a chronic exposure."

Ron Harder, a financial adviser from Roseville, wants to open Heritage Oaks Memorial Chapel in an office complex at 6920 Destiny Drive, which backs up to Antelope Creek Elementary School.

If his project is approved, it will be Rocklin's only full-service funeral home.

"We believe that this is a great need, and there's few people willing to do this," Harder said.

Nearby residents have opposed the project because air containing formaldehyde would be vented outside from the embalming preparation room.

"We've got a known carcinogen coming into our air, and we don't have enough information to know how much and how bad it's going to be," resident Lyle Solomon said.

Formaldehyde – a chemical used in the manufacture of building materials and to preserve human remains – may cause cancer in humans, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Although the Placer County Air Pollution Control District doesn't usually require permits for funeral homes, Heritage Oaks' proximity to a school prompted Finnell to analyze the health risk using a computerized air model. He found that even under the worst-case scenario, the cancer risk is only about one in a million.

Crabtree sent Finnell's report to Marty at the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

In an e-mail to Crabtree, Marty estimated the cancer risk from long-term exposure would be about 6 per 10,000, based on a formaldehyde concentration of 0.08 parts per million. However, she questioned whether the concentration in Finnell's report represented chronic or short-term exposure to formaldehyde.

Delson said that short-term peak exposure levels aren't valid indicators of cancer risk and long-term averages usually are well below peak exposures.

He added that the state Environmental Health Hazard Assessment office did not officially review Finnell's report and does not oversee Placer County's Air Pollution Control District's calculations.

The City Council is tentatively scheduled to reconsider the issue. Its next meeting is 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Call The Bee's Jennifer K. Morita, (916) 773-7388.