I've no idea how much ants produce but your point just adds to the key issue which is that the baseline(s)/thresholds for safety must be determined before substantial progress can be made. For that, let's check the environment humans have evolved in over many millennia.
Failing that or if we find there is enough formaldehyde from natural sources to cause us harm—and or if we determine human sources cannot be reduced to safe levels—or that it's completely impracticable to so (which on evidence seems likely)—then I'd reckon that at some futue time we may have to resort to gene editing or such to make our species more resilient to formaldehyde (that is in ways somewhat akin to how vaccination works today).
I don't think that's a stretch too far or that we're at risk of becoming Frankenstein-like humans; after all that claim could be made now about vaccination, it forces the strengthing of our immune systems to defend us in ways well above our pre-vaccinated state.
Of course, that approach would also apply to many other harmful chemicals and diseases. Right, for now that's just speculative science fiction but I've little doubt that eventually it'll happen.
Failing that or if we find there is enough formaldehyde from natural sources to cause us harm—and or if we determine human sources cannot be reduced to safe levels—or that it's completely impracticable to so (which on evidence seems likely)—then I'd reckon that at some futue time we may have to resort to gene editing or such to make our species more resilient to formaldehyde (that is in ways somewhat akin to how vaccination works today).
I don't think that's a stretch too far or that we're at risk of becoming Frankenstein-like humans; after all that claim could be made now about vaccination, it forces the strengthing of our immune systems to defend us in ways well above our pre-vaccinated state.
Of course, that approach would also apply to many other harmful chemicals and diseases. Right, for now that's just speculative science fiction but I've little doubt that eventually it'll happen.