FEMA Suspends Use of Disaster Trailers

Thursday, August 2, 2007; 8:57 AM
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Emergency Management
Agency has stopped donating and selling disaster trailers
while it studies reports that people living in them after
hurricanes Katrina and Rita got sick from formaldehyde
exposure.
Federal health scientists are in Louisiana and Mississippi
investigating the safety of the travel trailers being used
by hurricane victims, FEMA officials said. The scientists
have been asked to identify an acceptable air quality
level for formaldehyde, which is commonly used in
building materials but can cause respiratory problems in
high doses or with prolonged exposure.
Congressional leaders were outraged after documents
revealed that FEMA lawyers had discouraged the agency
from investigating reports that some trailers had high
levels of formaldehyde.
FEMA said in a statement Wednesday that "out of an
abundance of caution," it is temporarily suspending
further deployment of the travel trailers in its inventory
pending the results of the formaldehyde studies, which
will take into account relative humidity, the trailers'
design and how long they are lived in.
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