Banned Trailers Return for Latest Gulf Disaster

NYT, June 30

VENICE, La. — In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, they became a symbol of the government’s inept response to that disaster: the 120,000 or so trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to people who had lost their homes.

The trailers were discovered to have such high levels of formaldehyde that the government banned them from ever being used for long-term housing again.

Some of the trailers, though, are getting a second life amid the latest disaster here — as living quarters for workers involved with the cleanup of the oil spill.

h/t to RV Home Yet? for the links.

Industry push to send leftover FEMA trailers to Haiti stirs backlash, called “self-serving.”

CanadaEast, Jan 29

INDIANAPOLIS – The trailer industry and lawmakers are pressing the government to send Haiti thousands of potentially formaldehyde-laced trailers left over from Hurricane Katrina – an idea denounced by some as a crass and self-serving attempt to dump inferior American products on the poor.

“Just go ahead and sign their death certificate,” said Paul Nelson of Coden, Ala., who contends his mother died because of formaldehyde fumes in a FEMA trailer.

The 100,000 trailers became a symbol of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s bungled response to Katrina. The government had bought the trailers to house victims of the 2005 storm, but after people began falling ill, high levels of formaldehyde, a chemical that is used in building materials and can cause breathing problems and perhaps cancer, were found inside. Many of the trailers have sat idle for years, and many are damaged.

FEMA trailers turn up for sale in Oklahoma

RV Home Yet?

At RV Daily Report, I saw a story that Wheeler Rental and Mobile Home Sales in Oklahoma bought hundreds of FEMA trailers at auction and is now offering them for sale. According to KOFR.com, “A regional FEMA office spokesperson says the units now being auctioned have passed safety guidelines, regarding formaldehyde concerns which developed after Katrina.” Some have never been lived in and are still in the original boxes.

Note dismissive talk about how formaldehyde is in everything, including new cars. Perhaps this is something we might be more concerned about as well. Also, people don’t tend to live in their cars, and people working on the Gulf oil disaster are already at risk.

So, these trailers aren’t good enough for the Haitians, but they’re good enough for people working on oil clean-up, who may already be doomed.

The argument will be that these trailers have been sitting around long enough to air out and no longer put people at risk. However, there is such a thing as synergistic effects from multiple toxic exposures, and when people already are at risk from exposure to raw oil and dispersants, a little formaldehyde exposure might well go a long way. And let’s not forget that originally these trailers were permanently banned for long-term usage.