Environment
CDC: formaldehyde too high in trailers used by hurricane victims
By Ben Wasserman
Feb 14, 2008 - 3:37:52 PM

THURSDAY FEB 14, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said the agency would move Gulf Coast hurricane victims out of more than 35,000 trailers because tests showed these trailers released high levels of formaldehyde.

The tests of fumes from 519 trailers commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found formaldehyde - a carcinogen officially recognized by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as a probable carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - was five times what’s seen in other ordinary homes.  

In some trailers, formaldehyde was nearly 40 times the normal level, raising fears that residents could develop respiratory problems although there is currently no federal safety standard for formaldehyde fumes in homes and it is unknown what damage high levels of formaldehyde would cause in these trailer users.

Specifically, the formaldehyde levels were 77 parts per billion or ppb in the air of the trailers compared to 10 to 17 ppb in newer homes. In some trailers, the chemical was as high as 590 ppb, according to Associated Press. The tests were conducted from Dec. 21 through Jan. 23 and the results came last week.

Formaldehyde widely used in plywood, resins and other building material is constantly released, contaminating manufactured homes.  The chemical is highly reactive, causing damage to genetic material easily and irritating the lungs.  Children, elderly people and those with conditions such as asthma would be most vulnerable to the effect of the chemical.

The government would move people temporarily residing in more than 35,000 trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana (25,162 units) and Mississippi (10,362 units) and others states (hundreds). FEMA assigned more than 144,000 trailers and mobile homes to survivors of the 2005 hurricanes.

The move will begin with the families with children, elderly people and people with medical conditions, according to Mike McGeehin, director of a CDC division that focuses on environmental hazards.  The FEMA said the residents of affected trailers will be moved to apartments or hotels or if necessary mobile homes which are better in terms of formaldehyde gas.  Mobile homes are currently assigned to victims of recent tornadoes.  Thousands of FEMA trailers were intended for hurricane survivors but have sat idle at the Hope, Ark. airport.

FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison and CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said they are hoping residents will be moved out of the formaldehyde-filled trailers before the summer because high temperature and lack of ventilation can raise the toxic gas to an even higher level.

The whole drama started with reports by environments who said high levels of formaldehyde were found in many trailers and urged FEMA to test all the trailers for the toxic chemical. In May, the FEMA dismissed such a claim saying the trailers conformed to industry standards, Associated Press reported.  In August, about 1000 families in Louisiana asked the agency to move them to other quarters.  Then in November, lawyers representing a group of hurricane survivors sued to force FEMA to test for formaldehyde.  Later, the government agency was accused of soliciting favorable safety data on formaldehyde in trailers from the CDC to prove that the trailers are safe to use.
    
The tests showed about 5 percent had levels of formaldehyde high enough to cause breathing problem even in healthy people.  The associated Press quoted a New Orleans resident Jim Herring, 63 as saying “the workmanship is pathetic.”  Herring complained that he had been a smoker, but he did not have a cough until he and his wife moved into a trailer in April 2007.  Herring’s has moved back to their partially renovated house.