The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) anounced last week it is testing the air quality in mobile homes and trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina to check the level of formaldehyde pollution.
On or about 21st December, the CDC will begin testing for formaldehyde in the air inside 500 randomly selected trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi. Results should be available in 2008, said the agency on its website. The agency said a computer will randomly select the homes to be tested and volunteers cannot be accepted.
The FEMA has set up a resident hotline and said it will move temporary housing residents with a “formaldehyde concern” into a hotel or motel if they ask for it.
The CDC and the FEMA are also going to do a joint health study on children living or born while their families live in the homes provided by by the FEMA scheme. The study will look at the effects of indoor air quality from living in the FEMA scheme homes on child health. The results should be out sometime in 2008.
The CDC said that in order to conduct a valid study that releases results quickly, in the public interest, they cannot investigate every FEMA trailer or mobile home, or every child living in one.
The CDC is carrying out indoor air quality tests for formaldehyde in FEMA provided mobile homes and trailers because FEMA asked the agency for help in answering questions raised by residents.
The CDC will sample FEMA-provided travel trailers, modified travel trailers (also called “park models”), and mobile homes.
The agency pointed out there are currently no federal or scientifically recognized standards for formaldehyde levels in travel trailers. The agency will help FEMA to communicate the findings to residents so they understand what the scientific results of the tests mean. The agency will also help FEMA to prioritize which families should be moved out first into permanent housing.
Director of CDC′s Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention, Dr Henry Falk, said in a prepared statement that:
“This is a complex task. Knowledge about health effects of formaldehyde on long-term residents of temporary housing is limited. Levels we find in these tests will help everyone involved in this process make better informed decisions about what steps to take.”
Falk said this was a “complex task”, but the agency was:
“Mindful of the importance of this information to people who have been living in temporary housing for such a long time.”
FEMA Administrator David Paulison added that:
“FEMA′s first priority has been and continues to be the health and safety of temporary housing residents.”
“Upon request, FEMA will continue to move any temporary housing unit resident with a formaldehyde concern into a hotel or motel immediately and will work with all residents to provide them a housing alternative.”
“Every occupant who has expressed a health concern through our hotline has been offered a housing alternative and we are continuing to work with each of them to find a permanent housing solution that meets their needs,” explained Paulison.
CDC representatives will be sampling the air inside arouned 500 occupied trailers and mobile homes for around 5 weeks starting just before Christmas. Residents are encouraged to take part in the testing but their participation is not essential for the sampling to take place.
Results will be out early in 2008, and residents who took part will be contacted about the results for their own particular homes.
According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry (ATSDR), which is part of the CDC, the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has “determined that formaldehyde may reasonably be anticipated to be a carcinogen”.
ATSDR also says that formaldehyde is common in indoor and outdoor environments. The chemical is used in the making of building products and is a byproduct of burning and other natural processes.
Low levels of formaldehyde can lead to irritation of the skin, eyes, nose and throat, in children and adults alike. People with asthma may be more sensitive to its effects when inhaled.
Some studies of people who breathe in formaldehyde at work have shown a higher rate of cancer of nose and throat than would be expected in the general population, but other studies have not confirmed this.
Animal studies showed that rats exposed to high levels of formaldehyde developed cancer of the nose. Other animal studies have suggested that formaldehyde will not cause birth defects in humans and it is not likely to pass from mother to child in breast milk.
The FEMA hotline is 1-866-562-2381, or TTY 1-800-462-7585.
The CDC will also answer questions from concerned residents on 1-800-CDC-INFO.
Click here for more information about formaldehyde (ATSDR, CDC).
Written by: Catharine Paddock