More Never-Ending FEMA Follies

This AP story presents the latest chapter in the saga of the formaldehyde in the FEMA trailers…

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday questioned a TV station's findings of high formaldehyde levels in agency-issued trailers and said the lifestyles and habits of the flood victims living in the trailers may be to blame.

The story tells us that TV station KGAN contracted with a chemical testing company to conduct a test of 20 trailers; receptor “badges” were left in some selected trailers over the course of 24 hours to measure formaldehyde levels (apparently, FEMA uses “a daily average” to determine formaldehyde content).

The result?

The KGAN-TV test found that six of the trailers had levels of formaldehyde that exceeded Environmental Protection Agency and American Lung Association limits, which are more stringent than FEMA's or Iowa's standards.

…

The levels in the trailers ranged from 0.023 parts per million to 0.111 parts per million. The FEMA threshold is 0.016 parts per million, and the state accepts 0.04 parts per million.

April Samp, KGAN-TV's news director, said the station contracted with Florida-based Advanced Chemical Sensors Inc. to test the samples, and they tested only trailers in which no one was a smoker.

…

The conference call between reporters and FEMA officials turned testy when Samp said an infant living in a tested trailer had been taken to the hospital with a nosebleed.

"Some of these people are moms with babies, OK?" Samp said. "What responsibility does FEMA have to make sure that the air quality is safe enough to continue living there, even if (the reading) wasn't the baseline number?"

FEMA spokesman Michael Lapinski replied that residents unhappy with their trailers could move out.

"You can have a health concern regardless of what the formaldehyde reading is," Lapinski said. "If you have a health concern and you want to move out of that housing, you're free to move out of that housing." But moving out of that housing could cost the residents, said Bill Vogel, FEMA's coordinating officer for disaster recovery in Iowa. If they've already received the maximum of $28,800 in a housing-assistance grant from FEMA, then they'll be moving out on their own dime.

So what’s FEMA’s excuse for the elevated formaldehyde levels (and by the way, a nosebleed is definitely a sign of formaldehyde exposure)?

(FEMA Assistant Administrator David Garratt) said cooking, smoking and storing dry-cleaning products can elevate levels of formaldehyde.

And this after Garratt was informed that the study did not include trailers in which smokers lived...

And in case you had any doubt, this problem is not confined to Iowa; as noted here…

(In 2006) the Sierra Club tested 31 travel trailers in Mississippi and found that virtually all 94 percent had levels of formaldehyde above (a workplace exposure limit of .1 parts per million.).

…

FEMA'S recommendation for fixing the problem? Open the windows and turn on the air conditioner.

Why didn’t they recommend not smoking or not cooking (good luck with that) at that time as well?

Also, take a look at this Wikipedia article on FEMA trailers and see if you can find a reference to an air conditioner anywhere; I can’t.

Back to yesterday’s story…

Earlier this month, a federal judge in New Orleans ruled the government is not immune from lawsuits claiming Gulf Coast hurricane victims were exposed to high formaldehyde levels in FEMA-provided trailers. The judge said there was evidence FEMA delayed investigating complaints about the trailers because it might be held legally responsible.

Roughly 800 people are plaintiffs in the Gulf Coast cases, and attorneys are seeking certification as a class-action on behalf of thousands of people who lived in FEMA trailers after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Government tests of the air quality in hundreds of those trailers and mobile homes showed formaldehyde levels that were, on average, about five times higher than what people are exposed to in most modern homes.

I am not a legal professional, but as far as I’m concerned, this is criminal negligence.

But of course, Bushco will continue to “run out the clock” and possibly escape prosecution for this and a wide range of other shenanigans, including the fired U.S. attorneys and its squashing of scientific data related to the climate crisis, among other matters.

And not to worry; the residents living amidst the formaldehyde fumes in their trailers will be just fine.

As long as they don’t cook their food or run their non-existent air conditioners.