FEMA Suppressed Health Warnings for Workers, Katrina Victims

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has suppressed warnings from its own Gulf coast field workers since the middle of 2006 about suspected health problems that may be linked to elevated levels of formaldehyde gas released in FEMA-provided trailers, lawmakers said today.

At a hearing this morning of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, investigators released internal e-mails indicating that FEMA lawyers rejected environmental testing out of fear that the agency would then become legally liable if health problems emerged among as many as 120,000 families displaced by Hurricane Katrina who lived in trailers.

FEMA's Office of General Counsel "has advised that we do not do testing," because this "would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue," wrote a FEMA logistics specialist on June 16, 2006, three months after news reports surfaced about the possible effects of the invisible cancer-causing compound and one month after the agency was sued.

Another FEMA attorney on June 15 advised, "o not initiate any testing until we give the OK. . . . Once you get results and should they indicate some problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond to them."

Committee Chairman Henry L. Waxman (D-Calif.) called FEMA's bureaucratic neglect of storm victims "sickening."



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071901039.html?hpid=topnews

[mbperrin]

1. Heavens, FEMA would never lie, would they?

Heckuva job, still.

[EFerrari]

2. BushCo criminals!

:mad:

[uppityperson]

3. k&r Don't test because then you're not liable? Fuck them.

[earthboundmisfit]

4. They're sending FEMA trailers to Oklahoma now

for the people displaced by the recent floods - I wonder if they've tested them? Or after the trailers have been sitting over time (these I believe have been sitting in Arkansas), does the formaldehyde concentration diminish, even without ventilation?

[EST]

5. It does diminish somewhat, since the trailers cannot be made airtight.

However, even after several years of use by inhabitants, prolonged reduced ventilation-such as leaving a mobile home closed up for a week-will reveal continued outgassing of the poisonous compounds.
Mobile homes have the same problem but there is generally a lot more open door time before the customer takes final delivery and occupies the dwelling, so it's not so obvious.

If you'd like to see the extent of the problem, visit a mobile home sales establishment early in the day during warm weather. The overnight outgassing will burn your eyes and, in sensitive people. cause some pretty serious respiratory distress.

[earthboundmisfit]

7. Jeez, maybe the displaced who were supposed to get the trailers but didn't

are actually LUCKY they didn't, no?

[EST]

11. Well...in some ways, I suppose,

if you enjoy being cold, wet, hungry, and homeless. Of course, you aren't as likely to die from cancer...uh, I think. Pneumonia will get you first.

[valerief]

6. Duh, and bears crap in the woods. Truth would have been more unusual. nt

[Snazzy]

8. AP: FEMA Slow to Test Toxicity of Trailers

FEMA Slow to Test Toxicity of Trailers


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Jul 19, 2:47 PM (ET)

By CHARLES BABINGTON

WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawyers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency discouraged officials from pursuing reports of dangerous levels of formaldehyde in trailers housing thousands of hurricane victims, according to documents subpoenaed by House members and released Thursday.

...

Formaldehyde, sometimes found in building materials used in manufactured homes, can cause respiratory problems and possibly cancer in high doses. FEMA provided more than 120,000 trailers to victims of the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and many thousands still occupy them, especially in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

When complaints of possible formaldehyde poisoning surfaced in early 2006, FEMA officials tested one occupied trailer and announced "there is no ongoing risk" for trailer users. But documents show the levels of formaldehyde found were higher than those considered safe by several government health and environment agencies.

The committee unearthed documents in which one FEMA lawyer advised: "Do not initiate any testing until we give the OK.... Once you get results ... the clock is running on our duty to respond to them."

....

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070719/D8QFR4F81.html

[MadMaddie]

9. No this is not just ""sickening" this is Criminal.

They have intentionally endangered peoples lives. And folks you have to go to the initial root cause of this problem: NO BID CONTRACTS
<snip>
FEMA purchased close to 102,000 travel trailers at a cost of $2.6 billion.
<snip>

[pitohui]

10. honestly? all trailers are like this -- ask anyone w. environmental allergy

the answer is not to deny people shelter in a crisis but to provide them with information so they can protect their health by using proper ventilation, having plants that absorb formaldeyhde in the trailer (cheap ass spider plants can save a lung!) and so on

we don't want to make a world where the gov't says well, fuck you, you can't be satisfied in a disaster so just die, but we do want people to be informed

i own birds and used to own canaries, the bird of coal mine fame -- small bird owners knew of this issue two decades ago, but clearly the general public needs to be informed as well, the knowledge is there "somewhere" it just doesn't always get to the people

[MadMaddie]

12. It's the coverup that's criminal...

But the coverup of by FEMA that these trailers are more toxic than they are reporting is criminal.

You may be right that the whole industry has this issue...in the case of Katrina why is the Government covering it up? To protect cronies....

[maddezmom]

13. McClatchy:FEMA knew residents feared trailers were contaminated, didn't act

WASHINGTON — Federal officials knew that hurricane evacuees housed in temporary trailers were worried about dangerous levels of formaldehyde but took little action, government documents show.

Their primary concern was the legal fallout if the temporary housing presented a health hazard, according to records obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"Do not initiate any testing until we give the OK," a lawyer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrote. "Once you get the results . . . the clock is running on our duty to respond to them."

Another advised that testing the trailers, which housed thousands of displaced Gulf Coast residents in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, "would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue."

FEMA did test one trailer, occupied by a pregnant woman and her 4-month-old child. The results showed formaldehyde levels 75 times higher than the maximum for workplace exposure recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

more:http://www.mcclatchydc.com/congress/story/18176.html