Lawmakers listened to trailer occupants who believe formaldehyde in their trailers were to blame for the various illnesses suffered by their families. Both Democrats and Republicans criticized FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for its poor and limited inspections of trailers where occupants had reported a range of respiratory illnesses. Apparently, FEMA lawyers had discouraged officials from following up on reports that sick trailer occupants might have become ill due to toxic levels of formaldehyde.

A trailer occupant, Paul Stewart, said he eventually bought his own trailer after realizing FEMA was no help at all.

Subpoenaed records showed that agency lawyers had told officials that there may be liability implications for FEMA if the tests indicated that the authorities had been negligent. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif) said after reading the documents that he found the whole thing “sickening”. He said what he read was exactly the opposite of what a government agency should be. “It is impossible to read the FEMA documents and not be infuriated,” said Waxman.

R. David Paulison, head of FEMA, said the agency made the best decision it could with the information it had. He added that FEMA now knows the agency will have to do something different than they had done in the past. He apologized to the affected occupants.

120,000 trailer homes were used to house people who were displaced by hurricanes Rita and Katrina. In Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, thousands of them are still in trailers today.

When reports came in of potential formaldehyde poisoning, officials from FEMA only tested one trailer. They concluded that there was no risk. That was all the testing amounted to. However, according to documents, the levels of formaldehyde was well above the levels deemed as safe by federal and environmental agencies. Paulison said there is no consensus on safe formaldehyde levels in residential dwellings. He said the advice by the EPA and CDC was to open doors and windows, and that is what FEMA employees told people to do.

Paulison now admits the advice was wrong.

According to Waxman, responding just to complaints is not good enough. He said FEMA should have monitored samples of trailers for formaldehyde regardless of reports coming in. Even though guidelines for levels of formaldehyde vary, he stressed that all agencies would have sounded the alarm at the levels present in the one trailer that was tested. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), workers should use respirators if they have to spend most of their working day in formaldehyde levels above 0.016 parts per million – the inspected trailer had a level of 1.2 parts per million, seventy-five times higher. The limit for 15 minutes of exposure is 0.1 parts per million, according to NIOSH.

After the affected family left the one tested trailer, no more trailers were tested, despite the fact that FEMA personnel had mentioned formaldehyde poisoning as a possible cause of the deaths of two residents.

Lawmakers say it looks as if FEMA deliberately discouraged further inspections because it was more interested in its own legal position than the well-being of the trailers’ occupants. When over 200 reports came in, FEMA should have acted as any government agency should.

Formaldehyde is a chemical used in paint and adhesives. It is classified as a known carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

— Committee Probes FEMA’s Response to Reports of Toxic Trailers
— Chairman Waxman’s opening statement
— Video of the hearing

Testimonies:

— Testimony of Dr. Scott Needle (pdf)
— Testimony of Mary DeVany (pdf)
— Testimony of Paul Stewart (pdf)
— Testimony of Lindsay Huckabee (pdf)
— Testimony of James Harris (pdf)
— Testimony of R. David Paulison