FEMA knew about toxic trailers

**Zalg8** · 07-20-2007, 01:00 PM

Link

FEMA knew about toxic trailers

By Spencer S. Hsu

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has suppressed warnings from its own field workers about health problems experienced by hurricane evacuees living in government-provided trailers with levels of a toxic chemical 75 times the recommended maximum for U.S. workers, congressional lawmakers said Thursday.

A trail of e-mails obtained by investigators shows that the agency's lawyers rejected a proposal for systematic testing of the levels of potentially cancer-causing formaldehyde gas in the trailers out of concern that the agency would be legally liable for any hazards or health problems. As many as 120,000 families displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita lived in the suspect trailers, and hundreds have complained of ill effects.

On June 16, 2006, three months after reports of the hazards surfaced and a month after a trailer resident sued the agency, a FEMA logistics expert wrote that agency attorneys had "advised that we do not do testing, which would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue." Another FEMA attorney on June 15 wrote, "Do not initiate any testing until we give the OK. ... you get results and should they indicate some problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond to them."

FEMA tested no occupied trailers after March 2006, when it initially discovered formaldehyde levels at 75 times the U.S.-recommended workplace-safety threshold and relocated a Mississippi couple expecting their second child, the documents indicate. Formaldehyde, a common wood preservative used in construction materials such as particle board, can cause vision and respiratory problems; long-term exposure has been linked to cancer and higher rates of asthma, bronchitis and allergies in children.

One man in Slidell, La., was found dead in his trailer on June 27, 2006, after complaining about the formaldehyde fumes. In a conference call about the death, 28 officials from six agencies recommended that the circumstances be investigated and that trailer air quality be subjected to independent testing. But FEMA lawyers rejected the suggestions, with one cautioning that further investigation "could seriously undermine the agency's position" in litigation.

On the eve of Thursday's hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, FEMA reversed course on the issue and said it has asked federal health officials to help conduct a new assessment of conditions in trailers under prolonged use. But revelation of the agency's earlier posture — in documents withheld by FEMA until they were subpoenaed by Congress — attracted harsh bipartisan criticism.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., called FEMA's indifference to hurricane evacuees "sickening." He said the documents "expose an official policy of premeditated ignorance," and added that "senior officials in Washington didn't want to know what they already knew, because they didn't want the legal and moral responsibility to do what they knew had to be done."

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said FEMA had obstructed the 10-month congressional investigation and "mischaracterized the scope and purpose" of its own actions. "FEMA's reaction to the problem was deliberately stunted to bolster the agency's litigation position," Davis said. "FEMA's primary concerns were legal liability and public relations, not human health and safety."

About 66,000 households affected by Katrina remain in the trailers at issue. FEMA has replaced 58 trailers and moved five families into rental units. The Sierra Club in May 2006 reported finding unsafe levels of formaldehyde in 30 out of 32 trailers it tested along the Gulf Coast, and some residents filed a class-action lawsuit last month in federal court in Baton Rouge against trailer manufacturers.

Three trailer residents who testified before the panel described frequent nosebleeds, respiratory problems and mysterious mouth and nasal tumors that they or family members had suffered. They also said veterinarians and pediatricians had warned that their pets and children might be experiencing formaldehyde-related symptoms.

"We have lost a great deal through our dealings with FEMA," said Paul Stewart, a former Army officer living in a trailer with his wife in Mississippi, "not the least of which is our faith in government."

In his appearance at Thursday's committee hearing, FEMA Director David Paulison apologized and said "in hindsight" that FEMA should have tested trailers earlier. "The health and safety of residents is my primary concern," he said. But he depicted the 200 or so complaints as voiced by a small fraction of the total number of families in trailers, and said more research is needed to determine why some trailer residents have become sickened, and what level of formaldehyde is unsafe in homes.

........

**Art Shirk** · 07-20-2007, 01:20 PM

"A trail of e-mails obtained by investigators shows that the agency's lawyers rejected a proposal for systematic testing of the levels of potentially cancer-causing formaldehyde gas in the trailers out of concern that the agency would be legally liable for any hazards or health problems."

Looks like that little startegy backfired. Who woulda thunk it?

This pretty sad. Almost harkens to the notorious Ford Pinto legal advice: Let the tanks blow up and kill people; it will cost less in lawsuits than in recall.

**Stone-Free** · 07-20-2007, 01:53 PM

Thats really fucked up. But whaddya expect from big brother?

**NorCascader** · 07-20-2007, 02:21 PM

You know what's reaally fucked...the gov't has been selling off all those used trailers here http://gsaauctions.gov

We were bidding on some...a couple of months ago, but didn't win.
I check this site sometimes and they have sold off tens of thousands of FEMA trailers in the last 6 months...fuckers

**Art Shirk** · 07-20-2007, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by NorCascader

You know what's reaally fucked...the gov't has been selling off all those used trailers here http://gsaauctions.gov

We were bidding on some...a couple of months ago, but didn't win.
I check this site sometimes and they have sold off tens of thousands of FEMA trailers in the last 6 months...fuckers

First, that is fucked.

Second, damn you for posting the site. I just bid on a Gulf Coast Fan Boat and a school bus that is in Tennessee.

**NorCascader** · 07-20-2007, 03:14 PM

yeah that is a good site.

One time I tried to buy a 12'x12' mural of Mount Ranier

I want the fanboat in Kentucky!!!

**danimal's dead** · 07-20-2007, 03:33 PM

If anyone thinks you should look to the federal government to save you, think again. FEMA is an excellent example of what happens when people with fat cushy government jobs are asked to respond to an "emergency."

If you think FEMA is bad, what will federally mandated health care be like.

Kind of like the war on poverty or the war on drugs, copmplete failures, which have only made things worse, much worse.

Go work for the forest circus for a few years, you'll find out all about government waste and incompetence.

**danimal's dead** · 07-20-2007, 03:36 PM

Oh, and the cover up doesn't surprise me at all.

The credo of all federal employees (excluding military) is CYA.

As in cover your ass from losing your fat cushy government job with 2 months of paid vacation and 30 more paid federal holidays, full health coverage etc...

**Jer** · 07-20-2007, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by danimal's dead

(excluding military)

Good one. I like a dry sense of humour.

But lemme just point out that everything you've said applies at least as well to private industry. General incompetence, dishonesty, massively wasteful redundancy, cover-ups, golden parachutes, weak or no link between performance and pay, valuing profits, speed and convenience over health and safety - it's all there.

It's just more expensive.

**Tippster** · 07-20-2007, 04:03 PM

Yeah - FEMA sucks. All they try to do is help you after you've lost everything in a Natural Disaster. Let's fucking disband it - how the hell is anyone supposed to make money on Insurance scams if they know there's still help?

Ask any of those complaining families if they would have preferred to sleep out in the open. FEMA didn't poison those trailers, and they also didn't have any "clean" trailers they were saving for the company picnic. Sure they could have simply not placed them at all, but that wasn't gonna happen, now was it?

**danimal's dead** · 07-20-2007, 04:30 PM

Anyone heard about the passport delays. Everyone flying back from Canada now needs a passport, soon anyone driving back from Canuckistan will need one, current wait times are 6 months to a year for processing.
What, they didn't see this coming?
I'm sorry but I have little or no faith in our federal government now.

DW, I hear you, I certainly don't have any faith in fortune 500 CEO's either.

Basically, the message is, we have no where to turn, wolves are out the front door and hyenas are waitng out back.

Next emergency, I'm calling the UN (that's a joke).

**Jer** · 07-20-2007, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by danimal's dead

Basically, the message is, we have no where to turn, wolves are out the front door and hyenas are waitng out back.

Yah. So us sheep better stick together.

Um, you first, I'll follow.

**danimal's dead** · 07-20-2007, 04:39 PM

My favorite way to lose a flame war, sheep.

Whenever anyone from Montana or Wyoming gets in a flame war it always comes down to calling us sheep phuckers, and it always hurts, every time.

David Witherspoon just went all sheople on me in the FEMA thread.

**danimal's dead** · 07-20-2007, 04:40 PM

Wow, I just forgot which thread I was posting in, thought I was in best way to win a flame war. I'm now my own alias, spooky huh.

**Jer** · 07-20-2007, 04:46 PM

... you had me wondering for a bit there ... now I can't remember who I am. I need some of what Odin's getting.

But how was I supposed to know you had a, well, sensitive spot about sheep? Your location just says "n." Could use something more informative, like "In ewe."

blech, I know. sorry. ... but now I'm really glad I'm following, not leading.