Woman who sued over poisons in FEMA trailer dies of lung cancer

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Woman who sued over poisons in FEMA trailer dies of lung cancer

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl071307khabortion.6fabe04e.html

 

 

Associated Press BATON ROUGE -- A woman who claimed in a lawsuit that FEMA

trailers exposed their residents to formaldehyde has died of lung cancer.

 

 

Desiree Collins, 47, who had asked the federal court in Baton Rouge to

approve her suit as a class action -- not against the Federal Emergency

Management

Agency but against companies that sold trailers to FEMA -- died July 2.

 

She had spent several weeks at Baton Rouge General Medical Center with

respiratory problems. Her lung cancer was diagnosed a week before she died,

attorney

Justin Woods of New Orleans said Thursday.

 

Woods said he hasn't determined whether formaldehyde is to blame the cancer,

and forensics specialists will test tissue taken while Collins was alive.

 

However, lung cancer is typically diagnosed after years, even decades, of

growth -- a major reason it is so deadly.

 

" Because symptoms often do not appear until the disease has progressed, early

detection is difficult, " the American Cancer Society says on its Web site.

About 60 percent of patients diagnosed with the most common form die within a

year after diagnosis, it says.

 

Collins, whose family lived at Renaissance Village near Baker, sued Forest

River Inc. of Elkhart, Ind., and other unnamed travel trailer vendors.

 

Her husband, Earl, and her children now will act as plaintiffs in the case,

Woods said. He said that if tests indicate the lung cancer is connected to

formaldehyde exposure, the lawsuit will be changed to include a wrongful death

claim.

 

At issue are 120,000 trailers FEMA supplied to people displaced by hurricanes

in 2005.

 

The lawsuit alleges Collins and thousands of other hurricane victims in

Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama who lived in the trailers " have been exposed

to

dangerously high concentrations of formaldehyde fumes and have had no choice

but to accept their plight. "

 

Formaldehyde is used in a number of materials inside the trailers, including

particle board, plywood, glue, curtains, molded plastic and countertops. It

can irritate eyes, nose, throat and skin, according the U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services. As of May, FEMA had received 140 formaldehyde

complaints.

 

A spokeswoman for River Forest lawyer Jason Bone of New Orleans said he was

not available for comment.

 

In documents filed earlier this week in Baton Rouge federal court, Bone

writes that the company's trailers met FEMA guidelines and complied with state

and

federal law. " In all material respects, River Forest provided safe and

reasonably efficient housing. "

 

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. .)