FEMA trailer plaintiff dies of cancer |
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Fri, 13 Jul 2007 21:37
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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A woman who claimed in a lawsuit that FEMA trailers exposed their residents to formaldehyde has died of lung cancer.Desiree Collins, 47, died July 2, her lawyer said. She had asked the federal court in Baton Rouge to approve her suit as a class action against companies that sold trailers to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.Her lung cancer was diagnosed a week before she died, attorney Justin Woods of New Orleans said Thursday. Lung cancer typically is diagnosed after years of growth, a major reason it is so deadly.Woods said he hasn't determined whether formaldehyde is to blame for the cancer, and forensics specialists will test tissue samples taken while Collins was alive.Formaldehyde is used in a number of materials inside the trailers. It can irritate the eyes, nose, throat and skin, according the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.As of May, FEMA had received 140 formaldehyde complaints.Collins sued Forest River Inc. of Elkhart, Ind., and other unnamed travel trailer vendors over 120,000 trailers FEMA supplied to people displaced by hurricanes in 2005. Her husband and children now will act as plaintiffs in the case, Woods said.A spokeswoman for Forest River lawyer Jason Bone of New Orleans said he was not available for comment.In court documents filed this week, Bone wrote that the company's trailers were safe, met FEMA guidelines and complied with state and federal law.Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Judge: FEMA can't halt housing aid 