By 2006 FEMA was getting reports from field workers along the Gulf Coast that residents of FEMA trailers where getting sick from the air in the toxic trailers. The first suspect was formaldehyde, which is used in the manufacture of the trailers.

Formaldehyde is an invisible gas that is known to cause cancer. It can also cause other illnesses ranging from nose bleeds to chronic bronchitis. Commonly used in manufactured homes, formaldehyde can cause respiratory problems and has been classified as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as a probable carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency.

E-mails uncovered during a congressional investigation into the trailers showed that FEMA lawyers told the agency to drag its feet on air quality testing. FEMA’s Office of General Council also advised the agency not to test the trailers because doing so “would imply FEMA’s ownership of the issue”.

In late 2007, FEMA and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) finally conducted air quality tests of 519 trailers. The CDC tests confirmed that the FEMA trailers posed a serious danger to residents still living in them. The average formaldehyde levels found in the toxic trailers measured 77ppb (parts per billions), significantly higher than the 10 to 17 ppb concentration seen in newer homes. When it announced its findings, the CDC urged FEMA to move residents from the toxic trailers as quickly as possible, with priority given to families with children, elderly people or anyone with asthma or other chronic conditions.

Hundreds of people sickened by the trailers' fumes have since sued their manufacturers, as well as the federal government.  According to the Associated Press, a lawsuit filed on behalf of a New Orleans woman and her son will be the first FEMA trailer lawsuit to go to trial.  The trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 14 in federal court.  The lawsuit names Gulf Stream Coach Inc. as a defendant.

This first trial will be followed by three others against that name different trailer manufacturers as defendants, the Associated Press said.

While the CDC found that although levels of formaldehyde varied from unit to unit of a particular brand, nearly all brands of Toxic FEMA Trailers tested had units with high formaldehyde levels.  The CDC "supported the need to move quickly," and get people out of FEMA housing before summer, as heat can increase formaldehyde fumes.  In a previous CDC study, scientists tested air quality inside hundreds of Toxic FEMA Trailers and mobile homes occupied by Katrina victim and detected potentially dangerous levels of formaldehyde in many units.  Pilgrim International, Inc.; Gulf Stream Coach, Inc.; Thor Industries, Inc.; and Coachmen Industries, Inc. were the trailers reviewed in the CDC study.

Now, particleboard appears to be one of the main sources of potentially harmful fumes in the government-issued Toxic FEMA Trailers.  The report issued by the CDC in Atlanta recommends using different building materials to produce emergency housing for FEMA.  The CDC also said that better ventilation in the units could make them safer.  Scientists speculate that formaldehyde levels in the Toxic FEMA Trailers were higher than in mobile homes because they contain more composite wood products, such as particleboard, in a smaller space, and with poorer ventilation.  The latest tests—conducted to determine which components were responsible for emitting formaldehyde fumes—were performed by California's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories.

Formaldehyde is an industrial chemical that can cause nasal cancer, may be linked to leukemia, and worsens asthma and respiratory problems.  Within months of moving into the trailers, residents began complaining about unusual sickness; breathing problems; burning eyes, noses and throats; and even death.  Formaldehyde is emitted from the resins and glues used in many construction components, including particleboard flooring, plywood wall panels, composite wood cabinets, and laminated countertops. Emissions are greatest in warm weather and when trailers are newly constructed.

Michael McGeehin, director of the CDC's division of environmental health hazards, said the report's findings only apply to FEMA trailers that sheltered Gulf Coast storm victims.  "They do not apply to other trailers in use elsewhere in the country," he said.  Although the CDC maintains that formaldehyde emitted by each trailer part didn't exceed limits set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban and Development, McGeehin said those HUD standards were meant for larger mobile homes.

Becky Gillette, formaldehyde campaign director for the Sierra Club, said the test results highlight the "terrible inadequacies" of the HUD standards, which date back to 1984.

When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, thousands of those made homeless moved into FEMA trailers, and 48,000 people continue to live in the temporary housing.   Soon after people started moving into the trailers, FEMA began getting reports that residents where getting sick from the air in the toxic trailers.  The first suspect was formaldehyde, which is used in the manufacture of the trailers.   But FEMA tried to ignore the problem.   E-mails uncovered earlier this year during a congressional investigation into the trailers showed that FEMA lawyers told the agency to drag its feet on air quality testing. FEMA's Office of General Council also advised the agency not to test the trailers because doing so "would imply FEMA's ownership of the issue".

Formaldehyde is an invisible gas that is known to cause cancer. It can also cause other illnesses ranging from nose bleeds to chronic bronchitis. The chemical was used as glue in the FEMA trailers and mobile homes. At least two deaths of FEMA trailer residents have been linked to formaldehyde exposure.   In spite of this danger, FEMA postponed the November 2 tests, saying it was not ready to begin the project.  However, despite its decision to postpone tests of FEMA trailers where people are actually living, the agency told its own employees to stay out of some of the 70,000 trailers it has in storage across the country due to dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes.

Just after FEMA postponed air quality tests, the Sierra Club released the results of tests it performed on the toxic trailers. In some extreme cases, formaldehyde levels in the structures were 70 times higher than what is considered safe. Of the FEMA trailers and mobile homes tested by the Sierra Club, only 23 had formaldehyde levels that "were at less than twice the acceptable long-term exposure limit" of 0.008 ppm, and only 9 where below that standard. The majority of the FEMA trailers had levels of .56 ppm, while the formaldehyde detected in mobile homes was also above the threshold, in some cases as high as 0.1 ppm.

Now, a US District Court Judge has given FEMA until December 17 to respond to the FEMA trailer residents' testing lawsuit.  The judge wrote that the response "shall, at the very least, set forth a detailed plan for testing the FEMA trailer units and, if necessary, for providing alternative housing for the trailer residents."   The judge has not ruled on the FEMA trailer residents' request that air quality tests begin immediately.

While FEMA’s offer of hotel housing is an improvement over the way it handled the toxic trailer issue in the past, many in Congress are still angry that FEMA did not deal with the formaldehyde issue sooner.  At a congressional hearing earlier this summer, emails from FEMA lawyers were released that indicated the agency was more concerned about lawsuits than the health of trailer residents.  One June 15, 2006, one FEMA lawyer advised the agency “do not initiate any testing until we give the OK. . . Once you get the results and should they indicate a problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond to them”.   A day later, FEMA’s Office of General Council advised an agency employee not to test the trailers because doing so “would imply FEMA’s ownership of the issue”.  

Because of its slow action in dealing with the crisis, FEMA and the manufacturers of the toxic trailers are already facing lawsuits as a result of illnesses brought on by the formaldehyde fumes.   Those lawsuits could cost US taxpayers millions, something that would have been avoided had FEMA acted sooner.  

Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., this week both urged FEMA to conduct broader testing than the 69 trailers it examined in Baton Rouge late last year and raised questions about the agency's response to complaints.

Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, raised similar concerns in a letter to FEMA in August. The new round of inquiries was prompted by a "CBS Evening News" report last week about high formaldehyde levels in trailers in Mississippi.

In tests in September, FEMA found dangerous levels of formaldehyde in some of the newly manufactured trailers, but after proper ventilation the agency said the air in the vehicles was safe. This week, FEMA Director David Paulison said he hasn't seen evidence that formaldehyde was causing health problems in trailer residents.

Formaldehyde is frequently found in building materials. Exposure to its gas can cause respiratory problems, asthma attacks and sinus infections, and the Environmental Protection Agency said prolonged exposure might cause cancer.

Landrieu, chairwoman of a subcommittee overseeing FEMA, asked the agency in a letter Friday to test more trailers. She called it "unacceptable" for FEMA to house hurricane victims "in hazardous units that expose (them) to toxic substances."

Jindal went a step further, asking the House and Senate Homeland Security committees to hold public hearings. He said he found it "astonishing" that FEMA had suggested that trailer residents open windows and run the air-conditioning to lessen the contamination.

"With the sweltering heat and humidity in the Gulf Coast, this is hardly acceptable advice to residents," he wrote in a letter to House leaders.

FEMA officials said they began receiving complaints of formaldehyde in trailers in early 2006 in Mississippi and moved quickly to address them. The agency distributed pamphlets and knocked on residents' doors urging them to ventilate the trailers. In May 2006, FEMA said it delivered similar advisories in Louisiana after complaints cropped up.

The Louisiana pamphlet urged residents to watch for symptoms "similar to that of the common cold or flu" and said children and elderly people, or those with respiratory problems and allergies, were especially susceptible. It urged occupants to keep the humidity and temperature in trailers low and avoid smoking inside.

The pamphlet omitted any mention of cancer. Yet a FEMA advisory for its own workers, first reported by CBS, warned that cancer was a "potential injury" for those installing trailers.

FEMA's tests last year of 69 new, unventilated trailers found the level of formaldehyde at 1.2 parts per million, 12 times the amount EPA says can cause vision and respiratory problems. The levels dropped to 0.3 parts per million after four days of ventilation, according to FEMA, still three times the EPA's baseline.

A FEMA official said the agency doesn't use the EPA's 0.1 parts per million standard, but rather a 0.3 parts per million level employed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for its manufactured homes.

Earlier this month, the agency dismissed findings by environmentalists that the trailers pose serious health risks from the known carcinogen. The agency said the fumes could be reduced by opening vents and windows, a strategy deemed unacceptable by Rep. Bobby Jindal in light of the region's heat and humidity.

Jindal, a Republican widely expected to run for governor in the fall, sent a letter to House leadership Thursday calling for hearings, saying he was "astonished" by reports of dangerous levels of formaldehyde in the trailers.

"Further, case studies show that even if residents followed FEMA's guidelines on appropriate ventilation of trailers, high levels of formaldehyde can remain," Jindal said.

The formaldehyde is mostly contained in particleboard used in the trailers, from walls to cabinets.

FEMA has said that its trailers conform to industry standards and that the agency has found no reason to question their safety. A review of air samples from 96 new trailers by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry shows that formaldehyde levels were noticeable, as with many other new products, but that the levels fall within safe levels in days if a trailer is ventilated, FEMA said.

However, FEMA has not conducted similar tests on trailers where people have been living for months since being displaced from their homes. The agency said there are 75,652 trailers still in use by victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama. The hurricanes slammed into the Gulf Coast within a month of each other in 2005.

Earlier this month, FEMA dismissed findings by environmentalists that the trailers pose serious health risks. FEMA said the fumes could be reduced by opening vents and windows. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen.

Jindal sent a letter to the House leadership calling for congressional hearings on the issue. He said he's "astonished" by reports of dangerous levels of formaldehyde in the trailers.

Jindal said FEMA's advice on how to handle the problem is unacceptable, especially in the heat and humidity of the Gulf Coast.

FEMA has said that its trailers conform to industry standards and that the agency has found no reason to question the safety of the trailers.

This suit alleges that persons who spent significant time in the FEMA provided housing units have been exposed to dangerously high concentrations of formaldehyde fumes and sustained serious injuries as a result of this exposure.

Parker Waichman Alonso LLP, Gainsburgh, Benjamin, David, Meunier & Warshauer, L.L.C., the Law Offices of Daniel E. Becnel, Jr. and the Law Offices of Ronnie G. Penton have been contacted by hundreds of people who were provided with trailer homes by FEMA and who are now suffering symptoms consistent with formaldehyde exposure.

If you or a loved one believe you may have been exposed to any toxic chemical while residing in a FEMA house trailer, please contact our office by visiting our website at www.toxicfematrailer.com or www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/toxic_fema_trailers . Free case evaluations are also available by calling Parker Waichman Alonso LLP at 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636).

On May 16, 2006, the U.S. Government stated that approximately 86,000 families are still living in FEMA house trailers across the Gulf region and more and more of them are waking up with a host of health problems according to medical experts. After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA purchased close to 102,000 house trailers at a cost of $2.6 billion. Some people waited months to get their trailers only to find out that the cheap building materials used were giving off toxic formaldehyde vapors. Many people reported not being able to stay in their trailers for more than five minutes without experiencing burning eyes, coughing, headaches, nausea or skin rashes, sinus infections, and nosebleeds.

Testing by the Sierra Club in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama indicated that 83% of the house trailers tested had formaldehyde levels above the EPA limit of 0.10 parts per million. At the time the environmental group said it found unsafe levels of formaldehyde levels in 30 out of 32 house trailers they tested. The group's sampling cast doubt on the safety of 118,000 trailers FEMA was stationing on the Gulf Coast to house people made homeless by Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005.

This past Thursday the Sierra Club issued more test results which it said clearly showed that formaldehyde emissions are a persistent problem in the trailers long after they were first moved into.

The formaldehyde is primarily contained in the particle board commonly found in trailers including areas such as walls and kitchen cabinets.

Exposure to formaldehyde fumes can cause flu-like symptoms, skin rash, headaches, difficulty breathing, asthma, coughing, burning eyes, respiratory problems and cancer. Young children and the elderly are particularly susceptible to these conditions.

About Parker Waichman Alonso LLP:

Parker Waichman Alonso LLP is a leading products liability and personal injury law firm that represents plaintiffs nationwide. The firm has offices in New York and Jersey. Parker Waichman Alonso LLP has assisted thousands of clients in receiving fair compensation for injuries resulting from defective products, tainted foods, medications and medical devices.

The firms above also represent thousands of individuals who were affected by Hurricane Katrina.

For more information on Parker Waichman Alonso LLP, please visit: www.yourlawyer.com or call 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636).

CONTACT:  Parker Waichman Alonso LLP
          David Krangle, Esq.
          (800) LAW-INFO
          (800) 529-4636
          info@yourlawyer.com
          www.yourlawyer.com

When Hurricane Katrina tore apart homes here in Bay St. Louis, Miss., Angela Orcutt and her young son Nicky found shelter in a FEMA trailer meant for weekend trips.

That trip has now lasted 21 months something these trailers were never built for. Time has turned them into human Petri dishes unregulated experiments on the health of thousands still stuck inside.

What were the symptoms?

"Pretty much just the constant coughing," Angela Orcutt told CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian. "He would just you could hear it, just in his chest."

Dr. Scott Needle, a pediatrician in Bay St. Louis, was the first to notice Nicky was not alone. Dozens of his patients were suffering from the same symptoms that kept coming back: coughing, burning eyes, nose bleeds, sinus infections.

They had one curious connection.

"Every one of them said, you know, we are living in a FEMA trailer. And not only that, but, you know, little Johnny wasn't having these problems before we moved into that trailer," Needle said.

Trailers with floors and cabinets built with particle board containing the chemical formaldehyde. Under hot, humid conditions, formaldehyde lets off toxic fumes, especially harmful to young lungs.

"It's the long-term carcinogen issue that really concerns me," Needle said.

Terry Sloan was a floor supervisor at a Gulf Stream Coach factory in Etna Green, Ind. Gulf Stream Coach built more than 50,000 stripped-down travel trailers.

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.

And CBS News has discovered an internal FEMA document that cites cancer as a potential job hazard for those just inspecting the trailers.

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

David Paulison, FEMA's administrator, told Keteyian, "I don't know that the trailers are causing" any sickness.

As for Angela Orcutt, she's long suspected something in her home was making her son sick.

So we tested it, using the exact same meter used by FEMA.

Our result read .17. That's 70 percent higher than what the EPA standard is.

"It's scary," Orcutt said.

CBS News also tested several trailers at Renaissance Village in Baker. There, they found at least two trailers with formaldehyde levels more than three-times the EPA limit. WAFB 9NEWS talked with some of the people living there. For Charlotte McGee, an evacuee from New Orleans, the FEMA trailer she lives in was only supposed to be a short-term home. After numerous road blocks and closed doors, she's called the cramped space her home for two years.

She says living in the conditions is hard enough. Now, knowing her health might be in danger on a daily basis is too much to bare. She says, "And we're just living here. If we die, we die, nobody cares." She shares that hopeless attitude with many of her neighbors. While watching the CBS Evening News and finding out parts of the trailers are built with formaldehyde, their attitudes and expressions quickly show anger and fear. "He said 70%?" CBS isn't alone when it comes to studying this potentially dangerous chemical. FEMA has done a study of its own.

Since last year, FEMA has replaced 70 trailers along the gulf because of formaldehyde exposure. It replaced 20 trailers in Louisiana and 50 in Mississippi. "We are afraid for the babies. We have about 26 newborn babies. But, if something like that is going on in our trailers, it would be deadly to their little lungs." When it gets hot and humid, formaldehyde lets off toxic fumes. That's not something these evacuees want to hear, especially in this south Louisiana climate. "I have been sick, I'm not going to say it's from the formaldehyde, but I have been having breathing problems."

As a solution to the dangerous chemical lurking around, FEMA suggests increasing ventilation by opening windows whenever possible. Also recommended is keeping the inside of your trailer cool and humidity low. It's also highly recommended that you do not smoke inside. Some say those tips simply aren't good enough. "How could you put us in this situation? Treat us without respect. Our lives are in danger. Would you put yourself in the same position?"

People living in Renaissance Village say probably not. 9NEWS also reported that many people who live in FEMA trailers may have signed a form that made them aware of the formaldehyde exposure. Whether they understood those dangers or not, none of them expected to be living in the trailers more than two years later.

PAUL STEWART, LIVED IN FEMA TRAILER: Moving home's a big deal.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Paul and Melody Stewart's home became just another headache when they were forced to abandon their trailer because they say the fumes were overwhelming.

MELODY STEWART, LIVED IN FEMA TRAILER: You would wake up. You could feel like a weight on your chest. I mean, you could feel that you couldn't breathe.

PAUL STEWART: We went on the Internet and I started looking up health issues, campers, so forth and came across a lot of threads and a lot of, you know, talk about formaldehyde inside.

S. O'BRIEN: Paul reported his suspicions to a FEMA maintenance subcontractor twice. He says he got no response. So he did his own test on the air in his camper and he was shocked by what he found. A formaldehyde concentration of 0.22 parts per million in the air. That's more than twice the concentration several federal agencies say is unsafe. The EPA saying anything over 0.1 parts per million can harm the respiratory system and may even cause cancer.

MELODY STEWART: I don't know how we were going to do it, but we knew we had to get out.

S. O'BRIEN: FEMA believes the Stewart's problem is an isolated case in an otherwise successful half a billion dollar trailer program that gave 100,000 families a place to live in record time.

DAVID PASSEY, FEMA SPOKESMAN: This is absolutely the largest disaster the United States has ever faced. With that has come the largest emergency housing mission and I this is it is safe to assume that there will be a number of families who will be staying in these travel trailers longer than in previous disasters.

S. O'BRIEN: Displaced residents are living in trailers made for camping. They're often built with particle board, with contains formaldehyde, for the bedding and the seats and the counters. CNN conducted air tests on two other FEMA trailers. Four children live in this one which tested 80 percent higher than federal recommendations. This one tested 50 percent higher. We tagged along with the Stewarts and some local environmentalists as they testing 31 FEMA trailers. Twenty-nine tested above the federal standard. FEMA says it hands out fliers to warn people to ventilate their new trailers. No one we spoke to said they'd gotten a flier.

SUSAN SAUNDERS, LIVES IN FEMA TRAILER: Oh, my eyes just ran a lot more and I had that hacking like everybody's got around here. Just that hacking cough.

S. O'BRIEN: At this FEMA trailer camp, at least a dozen people told us they have complained to FEMA about the irritating fumes. Darlene Bullock's trailer tested 30 percent above the federal standard.

DARLENE BULLOCK, LIVES IN FEMA TRAILER: They had to take the bed and mattress because of the plywood.

S. O'BRIEN: The Cavalier trailers are manufactured by Gulf Stream. The company says they received no complaints of illnesses and that they use "low formaldehyde emission building materials." Gulf Stream also says that "especially under closed and/or stored conditions formaldehyde from a variety of common building products may be present," but that levels will "dissipate when the space is ventilated." Dick Lemen was the nation's assistant surgeon general under two administrations.

DICK LEMEN, AIR QUALITY EXPERT: General knowledge was adequately available about the issues concerning formaldehyde, their irritant effects and should have been addressed in buying the trailers.

S. O'BRIEN: FEMA says they've used these vary trailers to house thousands of people after disasters for years.

PASSEY: I would question whether they are unsafe or whether this is for a few people a nuisance. We've not found formaldehyde to be an issue in the past, but we remain concerned.

S. O'BRIEN: FEMA offered Paul and Melody Stewart a new trailer after he complained. The Stewarts claim the replacement was infested with bugs. They took out a second mortgage on the nonexistent home and have bought their own trailer.

MELODY STEWART: If you haven't gotten one of these campers yet, the ones that FEMA gave us, thank God.

S. O'BRIEN: That was a look at how the situation is there for those who are dealing with that issue. You know, I think it's kind of an interesting problem when you think about it because on one hand they're so grateful for having any kind of, you know, housing at all. Many of these people are still living in sort of makeshift ways. But they're concerned about their health on a lot of fronts.

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Well given all that has happened to them. It's like being shot and complaining about lead poisoning. I mean you know what I mean, there's so many other issues that they've had to contend with, you know?

S. O'BRIEN: Or you could say being shot and having lead poisoning, too, and so you're compromised even more every second.

SERWER: I mean if these places are toxic, they're toxic, right? I mean if they're dangerous to live in, that's a problem.

The gas is formaldehyde, the airborne form of a chemical used in a wide variety of products, including composite wood and plywood panels in the thousands of travel trailers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency purchased after Katrina to house hurricane victims. It also is considered a human carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Air quality tests of 44 FEMA trailers conducted by the Sierra Club since April have found formaldehyde concentrations as high as 0.34 parts per million a level nearly equal to what a professional embalmer would be exposed to on the job, according to one study of the chemical's workplace effects.

And all but four of the trailers have tested higher than the 0.1 parts per million that the EPA considers to be an "elevated level" capable of causing watery eyes, burning in the eyes and throat, nausea, and respiratory distress in some people.

Becky Gillette, co-chair of the Mississippi chapter of the environmental group, said that representatives also have heard from numerous trailer inhabitants who say they began experiencing health problems ranging from headaches and runny noses to chronic respiratory problems and nosebleeds as soon as they moved in.

As a result of its testing and such accounts, the Sierra Club is pushing for a congressional investigation of the potential health hazards posed by the trailers.

"It's simply wrong that the government would spend billions of dollars to poison people in these toxic tin cans," Gillette said.

Pediatrician saw unusual illnesses
Dr. Scott Needle, a pediatrician in Bay St. Louis, said he noticed some unusual and persistent health problems among his patients living in the trailers well before the possible link to formaldehyde exposure surfaced.

"I was seeing kids coming in with respiratory complaints - colds and sinus infections - and they were getting them over and over again," he said. "...Almost invariably, these families were staying in the FEMA trailers."

A class-action lawsuit also has been filed in Louisiana, naming the federal government and trailer manufacturers as defendants and alleging that "the temporary housing is unsafe and presents a clear and present danger to the health and well-being of plaintiffs and their families."

Despite the Sierra Club tests - and air quality testing by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in November that detected formaldehyde levels at FEMA trailer holding stations on the Gulf Coast as high as 5.0 parts per million, or 50 times the EPA's "elevated" level - FEMA says the trailers are safe and there is no need for it to conduct its own air-quality testing.

"FEMA stands confident in using travel trailers for emergency sheltering," said agency spokesman Aaron Walker. "To put it in perspective, we have almost 115,000 trailers out right now, and FEMA has received just over 20 complaints total."

Better ventilation recommended

Walker said those experiencing any adverse reactions to the trailer environment can likely resolve the issue by increasing ventilation.

"We encourage families living in the trailers, if they're worried, to take steps to air out their trailers," he said. "If a family is uncomfortable with their trailer, they're welcome to call our trailer hot line (and) we can come out and test their trailer and have a look at it."

Trailer manufacturers contacted by MSNBC.com declined to comment on the issue because of the pending litigation and directed inquiries to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association. RVIA spokesman Kevin Broom echoed Walker in saying that the gas in the trailers poses no health threat.

"The industry uses low-emitting materials, so formaldehyde has not been an issue for 15 or 20 years at least," he said.

Broom acknowledged that the high heat and humidity in the Gulf Coast could increase the rate of formaldehyde "outgassing" from wood products trailers, but added that ventilation should quickly take care of any problem.

"You can get it to dissipate very easily if you just ventilate it," he said. "People may just need to be shown how to open the windows."

Mary DeVany, an industrial hygienist from Vancouver, Wash., who has studied the formaldehyde issue, agrees that the high heat and humidity in the hurricane-ravaged zone exacerbate the problem. But she believes that the higher-than-usual readings in the FEMA trailers could be the result of the rush to manufacture the trailers in the wake of Katrina.

"Typically with these plywood and particleboard materials before assembly they're put in ovens that heat them to 130 degrees," she said. "This sets and bakes off the formaldehyde in the glues and resins. I'm not sure that happened in this case because the trailers were made so fast."
 
The RVIA's Broom disputes that notion, saying such "baking" is performed by the manufacturer to reduce the formaldehyde leakage.

"That's not something the RV industry would do," he said of the process. "They would be buying certified low- emission materials."

A patchwork of standards
Any effort to determine whether the formaldehyde levels present in the trailers pose a health threat is exacerbated by the patchwork of standards in place to regulate exposure to the chemical - none of which apply to travel trailers or recreational vehicles.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development limits the use of formaldehyde-emitting products in manufactured homes setting a standard of 0.2 parts per million for plywood and 0.3 parts per million for particleboard materials. But the agency does not regulate travel trailers or motor homes, probably because it was never anticipated that people would spend long periods of time living in them, said the Sierra Club's Gillette.

The lack of an exposure standard reflects a bigger issue, said Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer American Lung Association.

"The real problem is we haven't done for indoor pollution what we've done four outdoor pollution and set national standards," he said. "There are no indoor air quality air standards and I really think Congress should empower the EPA and NIOSH (the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) to set standards."

Nor is there agreement on the long-term health risks from exposure to formaldehyde.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, classified it as "carcinogenic to humans" in June 2004 after reviewing 40 human studies, including a National Cancer Institute study linking exposure to an elevated risk of rare nasopharyngeal cancer.

California cracking down
The California Air Resources Board has identified formaldehyde as a "toxic air contaminant" after state experts concluded that, based on current research, there is "no safe exposure threshold to preclude cancer." The agency is currently developing regulations aimed at sharply reducing the amount of formaldehyde products used in the state by 2010.

But no U.S. health or environmental agencies have followed the IARC in declaring the chemical to be a human carcinogen, saying more research is necessary. And the industry groups have sponsored research that they say shows the potential risk associated with exposure has been overblown.

"All of the available and still-emerging human health research data is demonstrating that if formaldehyde exposure is kept below levels that produce chronic irritation and overt target tissue damage, the risk of cancer is essentially zero," according to the Formaldehyde Council, an industry group.

The debate is far from academic for Katrina survivors who are nearing their one-year anniversary living in the trailers.

DeVany, the industrial hygienist, said that children and the elderly are most at risk, the former because they have higher respiration rates than adults and the latter because they are likely to be exposed to the fumes more than those who work and only return to their trailers at night.

"A year from now, the formaldehyde will be gone, but the permanent and lasting effects from these exposures will not," she said.

Fumes forced couple to flee
Sounding a similar warning, though one born from personal experience, are Paul and Melody Stewart of Bay St. Louis, who say formaldehyde forced them out of their FEMA trailer and into their truck.

The couple said that even though they had a friend air out the Cavalier trailer and run the heater before they arrived, the smell when they walked in was overpowering. And Melody said she had a nosebleed the first night they stayed in it.

"(The smell) was really bad, but we went and ahead and went to bed," she said. "Within hours, I woke up to the smell - it was that strong - and I was gasping for fresh air. I ran to the window."

The couple continued to ventilate the trailer and also tried removing composite wood panels from beneath the bed and table bench and replacing them with solid wood, but nothing seemed to help.

Finally, when their pet cockatiel took ill, they decided they had to do something.

"We got up one morning and the cockatiel was lethargic, wouldn't move, was losing its balance," said Paul, a police officer in neighboring Waveland. "(Later), the vet told us unequivocally, ‘Look, you either get the bird out of that environment or he's going to die.'"

The Stewarts complained to FEMA and received two replacement trailers - the first of which also smelled of formaldehyde and a second that had swathes of mold and a stove top that looked like it had been "used at a Waffle House," Paul said.

Fed up, they called FEMA and told the agency to come take the trailer away, then spent five days living in their truck before using their last $50,000 in savings to buy a "fifth-wheel" trailer devoid of any formaldehyde odor.

"We took what resources we had left, and what we really should have used to rebuild our house, and went out and bought our own camper," Paul said. 

Since then, the Stewarts have granted numerous media interviews, intent on spreading word of the possible hazards.

"We're here because there are so many people at risk (and) they're in the shadows," Melody said. "You've got Christians, hard-working people that have lost their jobs and retired people who have paid their dues to society, and we're putting them at risk by letting them stay in these campers."

Testing by the Sierra Club in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama illustrated that 83% of trailers tested had formaldehyde levels above the EPA limit of 0.10 parts per million. "FEMA trailers should come with a warning sign”; said Leslie March, chair of the Sierra Club's Gulf Coast Environmental Restoration Taskforce. "Hurricane victims do not deserve to be victimized by their own government."  "We know one family that moved into a storage shed because their daughter threw up every time she spent time in the FEMA trailer," said Becky Gillette, co-chair of the Mississippi chapter of the Sierra Club. "Another man sleeping in his driveway told me, 'My FEMA trailer is killing me,'" she added.

One Bay City, Mississippi mother who has been living in a FEMA trailer told CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian that her son “would constantly cough and you could hear it in his chest.” Dr. Scott Needle, a pediatrician in Bay St. Louis, was the first to notice that the child was not alone. Dozens of his patients were suffering from the same symptoms that kept coming back. They had one peculiar connection. "Every one of them said, you know, we are living in a FEMA trailer. And not only that, but, you know, little Johnny wasn't having these problems before we moved into that trailer," Needle said.

Terry Sloan was a floor supervisor at a Gulf Stream Coach factory in Etna Green, Ind. Gulf Stream Coach built more than 50,000 stripped-down travel trailers.  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.

To date FEMA continues to downplay the problem that has placed tens of thousands of people at risk for increased respiratory infections, irritated eyes and mucus membranes, as well as an increased risk for cancer. FEMA claims that only a few people have complained about the formaldehyde problem. No steps have been taken to protect people's health by providing air purifiers or other remedies. CBS News has discovered an internal FEMA document that cites cancer as a potential job hazard for those just inspecting the trailers.

Legal Rights for Gulf Coast Victims Living in FEMA Trailers
If you or a loved one live or have lived in a FEMA trailer and you have suffered serious health problems as a result of the toxic chemicals in the trailers, you may be entitled to compensation. Please fill out the form at the right or call 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636) for a free case evaluation.
Download Form 95 Now to Protect Your Rights. Click here!