FEMA's Free Formaldehyde

[Guest guest]

http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/08/08/

 

formaldehyde-in-fema-travel-trailers

-making-people-sick/

 

 

 

Some travel trailers issued to victims of Hurricanes

Katrina and Rita last year by the Federal Emergency

Management Agency are emitting potentially dangerous

levels of formaldehyde, an industrial chemical used in

their manufacture which some residents say is making

them sick.

 

In Mississippi alone, FEMA has received 46 complaints

from people who say they have been affected by

symptoms of formaldehyde exposure, including eye,

nose, and throat irritation, nausea and breathing

difficulties. According to the Environmental

Protection Agency, formaldehyde has been found to

cause cancer in rats and may cause cancer in humans.

 

The Sierra Club conducted tests of 31 FEMA travel

trailers and found that 29 of them had unsafe levels

of formaldehyde, according to a report (PDF) published

on the group’s Web site.

 

What do you suppose FEMA is doing about it? First off,

they really don’t think it’s a problem in the first

place.

 

“It’s the ‘new car smell,’” said Charles Powell, who

has been with Beaumont’s [Texas] FEMA office since

October, adding he isn’t aware of any complaints about

the air quality in their travel trailers. — Beaumont

Enterprise

 

So they’re going to do more testing. FEMA plans to

test indoor and outdoor levels of formaldehyde at

several unused travel trailers.

 

FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said agency director R.

David Paulison wanted to do what was in the best

interest of hurricane victims.

 

“They came to the decision … of victims first,” Walker

said. “We want to make sure our residents feel

comfortable.”

 

Walker said the agency couldn’t verify the Sierra Club

findings “to make sure their testing was done

adequately or correctly.” He said the Environmental

Protection Agency will handle the sampling for FEMA. —

Associated Press

 

In some cases, FEMA is replacing travel trailers with

ones that aren’t giving off noticeable levels of

formaldehyde.

 

For the next several months, FEMA recommends that

people in travel trailers air out the trailer

frequently, use air conditioning and dehumidifiers,

and not smoke in the trailers.

 

Maybe this is why hundreds of trailers remain empty

and the press isn’t allowed to talk to people who live

in them.