FEMA moves to get people out of trailers

FEMA moves to get people out of trailers

	Published : Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:47 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Federal disaster officials plan to move thousands of hurricane victims out of travel trailers as worries grow that people might have been living for months in government-issued campers contaminated with a carcinogen.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency also plans to stop using travel trailers in future disasters until it feels it can deliver safe ones, Aaron Walker, a FEMA spokesman, said Friday.

The plan calls for disbanding government trailer sites on the Gulf Coast and offering safe mobile homes, hotel rooms or apartments to those who need living space as they rebuild hurricane-damaged homes. The moves come as worries grow that the campers are not safe, possibly because particle board in their construction contains high levels of formaldehyde, a carcinogen that can cause respiratory problems.

'FEMA takes these concerns seriously,' FEMA administrator R. David Paulison wrote in a July 31 memo obtained by The Associated Press that spells out the plan of action.

Concerns about formaldehyde contamination have existed for more than a year, but FEMA was slow to react, and when it did, downplayed the health risk. But lawsuits, environmental groups and warnings by independent experts and doctors have pushed FEMA to seriously re-evaluate the risks.

Thad Godish, a formaldehyde expert with Ball State University who has acted as an independent expert in evaluating the FEMA trailers, said the formaldehyde levels were very high -- some reaching more than 1 part per million -- in some trailers previously tested by federal regulators.

At such high levels, he said people, especially children younger than 6, are likely be affected.

'You are simply sick all the time,' Godish said. 'It's basically upper respiratory, nose, throat irritation, headaches, fatigue.'

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is examining the possible toxicity of the trailers and issued a health advisory because of the uncertainties. It appears the problems stemmed from manufacturers buying materials from countries such as Malaysia, where formaldehyde regulations are slack, Godish said. Unlike mobile homes, there are no federal formaldehyde standards for campers.

Jay Wilson, executive director of the Colorado-based Disaster Emergency Response Association, said the move was effectively an unprecedented recall of a product issued by a federal agency.

'I can't personally think of any other time when FEMA or HUD has had a major reversal in a program where they distributed something like trailers and came sometime later to realize there was some risk to it,' he said.

Moving families out of trailers will undoubtedly run into logistical difficulties because of the high volume of people still in travel trailers two years after major hurricanes pummeled the Gulf Coast in 2005. There are about 65,000 trailers still in use on the Gulf Coast. There is no start date yet for the new policy, Walker said.

'Our goal is to match the families with the rentals out here,' said Andrew Thomas, a FEMA spokesman in New Orleans. So far, FEMA has lined up about 4,500 rental units in Louisiana, but that falls far short of what could be required to house the people who could need new housing. There are about 45,000 trailers still in use in Louisiana.

It may be a logistical feat to rapidly move the remaining families out of trailers, but it won't be hard to find takers.

Paul Nelson blames the death of his 74-year-old mother last October on bad air in the trailer she was forced to live in after Hurricane Katrina destroyed everything on the family's Coden, Ala., plot next to the Gulf of Mexico, where they ran an oyster business.

Her death was caused by pneumonia and heart problems, he said. She never had lung problems before moving into the trailer. An independent test using a kit provided by the Sierra Club found high levels of formaldehyde, he said.

'End of August here will be two years of people living in these things. This is wrong,' Nelson said. 'I can't bring my mother back, but get the people out of these trailers, get these children out of the trailers and put them in some other accommodation.'