The Federal Emergency Management Agency is at the center of another storm: Turns out agency lawyers silenced field workers who warned in early 2006 that FEMA-supplied trailers emitted dangerous levels of formaldehyde gas. The agency didn’t want to be liable for any damages.
As many as 120,000 families could have been exposed to the fumes, which FEMA measured at 75 times the safe level. Hundreds of people reported illness and at least one person was found dead after complaining about fumes.
Congressional lawmakers this week expressed outrage about the revelations.
So will FEMA be in charge of evacuating the 60,000 families still living in these trailers?
Another question Congress might pursue: Why do trailers emit high levels of dangerous gases?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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38 Comments
People who accept help from the government have no right to expect safety. The government is entitled to “thin the herd” as it were.
Step right up, get your free formaldehyde.
Steven Davis,
Indeed. This is what to expect when Republicans who hate government, run government.
Oversight–bah!
Congressmen expressed outrage? They didn’t have any outrage when this was first reported years ago by Greg Palast.
“Another question Congress might pursue: Why do trailers emit high levels of dangerous gases?”
Because they are built with cheap particle board, and toxic adhesives.
Your satire may not be so far from the truth, Steven (not that I’d be telling you anything you don’t know, I’m sure).
I really think there’s a good chance that this administration thinks there’s a method to its incompetence/madness. Rove and Bush originally ran in 2000 on the idea of the Ownership Society. This bunch just might think that a good old-fashioned display of incompetence by Fed agencies over 8 years would do a good bit toward convincing Americans that government is incapable of doing good. Of doing ANY good under ANY circumstances.
See, guvmint screws up every time! (hee, of course we planned it that way!) We need desperately to dismantle the New Deal and get the Fed out of the biz of bailing Americans out of the Really Bad Financial Stuff That Can Happen In Life (that’s why the insurance biz gives us all that money, duh, to eliminate all the low-cost competition)!
Of course with this hypersecretive bunch, who knows for sure what the heck they’re doing.
Can’t look good in the ‘ol history books, though, when at best the Bush administration displayed staggering incompetence from 2000 through 2007 (at worst, of course, they’re murderous). Because surely anybody with a pulse can see that obviously the old machinery of government can be managed better. I mean jesus, on purpose or incompetent who cares, things can’t get any worse.
Yeah and at a cost higher than it would be to build a damn house.
What a bunch of crap. Now we not only have to worry about China trying to screw the people, but now our own government coverups. And you don’t think they lie about the Mercury in immunizations?
uh knock on wood.
This is shocking, SHOCKING!Doesn’t the Government always act in the best interests of Americans?
I mean, look how well they take care of our soldiers and their families. Look how well they took care of the workers at the WTC site.I just cannot believe politics would come in the way of health.
Ahhh, nothing like expressing hatred of poor people to get your juices flowing.
Seriously, what I find amusing about Bushco is they start with the premise that the government doesn’t work, they then set about to prove their point, and ultimatley claim to victims of government inefficieny.
The whole deal is like the old definition of Chutzpah – when a child murders both of his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.
‘Are FEMA Trailers Making Residents Sick?’http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/16/cbsnews_investigates/main2819179.shtml
has a link to,’FEMA’s Own Documents Tell The Formaldehyde Story’http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/05/16/primarysource/entry2819463.shtml” This document is the most interesting. It’s a standard part of the job description package for most federal jobs. It is entitled “FEMA Job Hazard Analysis” and lists, in helpful chart form, the activities involved in the position. The position is Logistics Material Specialist, Trailer In-Bound Inspection (the guy or gal who inspects a brand-new trailer before it is sent off to a needy family in the Gulf).
Under the “Physical Hazard” for those entering a new trailer it says, “Formaldehyde off gassing…”
The potential injury: Cancer. “
It’s textbook quid pro quo- if you expect help from your administration, be prepared to make a sizable ($250K+)campaign contribution.
Are those the same FEMA trailers used in Greensburg?
So what are they doing in government trailers two years after the hurricane?
Waiting for the government to build them a free house?
Hotdog 1
Let’s say your house is in a hurricane. It’s damaged by the hurricane, but the insurance co. won’t pay because when rainwater busts down a levee and floods your house, it’s no longer storm damage, now it’s FLOOD damage, and you don’t have flood insurance.
So you have no house, no equity to sell off, and no place to live.
You’re telling me that you and most Americans could bounce back from a devestating loss like that with no help from anybody else?
One can only hope YOU get the chance to find out for yourself, first hand . . .
Toxic trailers, what Will Fema come up with next?
I don’t like much about China but one thing I do admire about the Chinese is that they are very quick and harsh in dealing with corrupt and incompetent government officers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/business/worldbusiness/11execute.html?ex=1185076800&en=d3f1626cf4063b85&ei=5070
“So what are they doing in government trailers two years after the hurricane?
Waiting for the government to build them a free house?”
They did not have flood insurance or were denied their claim and have no money to rebuild a house with. They have to save probably for at least 5 years to even begin to pay for another house.
It would be nice if we could put some FEMA trailers on the White House lawn and force Bush, Cheney and the other Republican slime to live in them.
Perhaps Ben or some other chemist type will explain what is meant by this.
What I can read about it and what another poster put on open thread it has to do with permissible exposure limits.
From what I understand permissible exposure limits are those limits that a worker can be exposed to over a certain period of time (I suppose a work shift day?)
The article inferred that the limits were 75X the Permissible Exposure Limits. I’m no chemist so don’t know how to extrapolate what 75X the PEL would be in terms of time or what kind of effect it would have in the short term or the long term.
I got the impression that the news writer didn’t know either because it wasn’t in the article.
I know one thing that you can work at a gas station all day long and sniff gas without any ill effects.
But once you enclose that in a room, not only the explosive danger is higher, but the risk of a higher concentration becomes greater because there is no where for the gas to escape.
That’s why I brought up the airing out of the trailers before they were used. Normal activity in the trailers would probably keep the PEL at normal or I would think they wouldn’t be able to sell the trailers in the first place.
That’s all I think that needs to be done, open the door and windows before someone is allowed to move in and air them out. Seems to simple, but it would probably work.
“That’s why I brought up the airing out of the trailers before they were used.”
The formaldehyde out-gassing can continue for months, or longer. One “airing out”, “before they were used” does NOT fix it.
The same problem in 252 prefabricated residential trailers here,’Construction Woes Add to Fears at Embassy in Iraq’http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/04/AR2007070401685_pf.html
Well, it looks like somebody is going to get canned and perhaps the trailer manufacturer fined then.
People buy brand new mobile homes and campers all the time and THEY don’t get sick.
Wonder about the trailers they tow in for classrooms when schools outgrow their buildings too?
Formaldehyde is an issue with many building msaterials – plywood, furniture, carpets, ets. I am certain it is also in a new car. The problem comes with concentration and duration.
A mobile home/trailor has a larger fraction of ’synthetic’ material than a ’stick-built’ home. Also, with the latter some of the glues might de-gas during construction. That is less likely with a manufactured product.
One remedy is to open windows. As the materials age a bit I would expect the formaldehyse to dissipate. So, after some years it would be less bad.
One big problem is that often a trailer is ‘tighter’ than another structure might be. Indoor air pollution is a major issue; it is often more severe than ‘ordinary’ pollution.
Formaldehyde out-gassing increases with higher temperatures. A “cure”(sic) is to set the A/C at 74 deg. F. or cooler.
‘Toxic trailers affecting health, well-being’http://www.sunherald.com/278/story/102166.html“When they leave for work in the mornings, the one thing they can’t forget is to open the windows.
“If not, if closed up during the summer, oh, gosh, you open that doors, it’s like ‘whew – that chemical smell’,” said James, a 47-year-old Pass Christian resident.”
The key points may be 1) cheaper wood products may contain more formaldehyde, and 2) there are no federal standards for formaldehyde.
‘Are FEMA Trailers Making Residents Sick?CBS News: Homes For Those Displaced By Katrina Can Contain High Toxin Levels’http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/16/cbsnews_investigates/main2819179.shtml“Sloane says his crew worked at a breakneck pace for months, which, he says, forced the company to use cheaper wood products.
“Quality suffered dramatically because of the drive and pressure to put these trailers out,” Sloan said.
Executives at Gulf Stream Coach declined an on-camera interview. Instead, the company issued this statement saying, in part, “For the FEMA trailers it used components and materials that met or exceeded industry standards.”
But there are no federal standards for formaldehyde. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends a workplace exposure limit of .1 parts per million.
Last year the Sierra Club tested 31 travel trailers in Mississippi and found that virtually all — 94 percent — had levels of formaldehyde above that limit.”
It is unfortunate that last fall-winter-spring they were not advised to air them out. There is no winter in that part of the country so they could easily have windows open during the day. It is much harder this time of year with the heat and humidity.
Greensburg will be easier for a number of reasons. Our summers are less severe that Louisiana and our winters still not all that bad. A week hardly goes by that I don’t ‘change the air’ in my house. (Although summer comes close!)
It is unfortunate that last fall-winter-spring they were not advised to air them out. There is no winter in that part of the country so they could easily have windows open during the day. It is much harder this time of year with the heat and humidity.
Greensburg will be easier for a number of reasons. Our summers are less severe that Louisiana and our winters still not all that bad. A week hardly goes by that I don’t ‘change the air’ in my house. (Although summer comes close!)
Could FEMA bring a FEMA trailer to Wichita and park it at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium for the rest of the summer?
Tours could be given to the crowd who attend the NBC tournament and other interested citizens. Perhaps a volunteer WE Blogger or even a WE opinion editor could live in it for the rest of the summer to see if he … or she (if WE opinion editor Rhonda Holman volunteers) … suffers any health/respiratory problems.
I would like to see how those infamous FEMA trailers are outfitted anyway. And who says Wichita doesn’t offer interesting things to do for its young people.
Brought to you by the same people Liberals wish to turn overseeing their medical care to.
“The article inferred. . .”
The listener infers, the speaker implies. Noticed this was becoming a pattern.
Your English 101 teacher…
True American, so you have no intention of taking advantage of Medicare health benefits when you turn 65?
I’m not counting on this Government excisting in its current form by the time I turn 65.Name one Federal Government organization not awash in red tape and a total cluster f***?
Absolutely WRONG Not-True. FEMA used to be professionally run before Bush turned it into a dumping ground for political hacks. In fact, prior to Bush FEMA was hardly a cluster as you suggest.
Just because YOUR guys FUBAR everything doesn’t mean others would.
Yeah, naturally raises the question “does the Bush administration screw stuff up on purpose?”
Because compared to Bush, under Clinton FEMA ran like a Swiss clock.
Things that make you go “hmmmmmm…..” Of course, I guess it could just be chalked up to comical ineptitude and Keystone Kops incompetence on Bush’s part.
You tell me. Which is worse?!?
“I’m not counting on this Government excisting [sic] in its current form by the time I turn 65.”
Speak and spell in English, please! Or, drink until you pass out without bothering us any more. Okay?
The Bush M.O. has been to load up Govt. agencies, with people philosophically opposed to the agency’s charter, who then must deliberately work to invalidate the agency as capable of performing its charter. In simplier terms they go in and screw it up so bad, people think, do we even need this organization?
Yeah, Ms Simpson.
I noticed that Kansas made that same error earlier today.
I’m sure it’s nothing but a coincidence.
Confusing “infer” for “imply” I mean . . .