FEMA Disregards Health Threats
Statement of Carl Pope,

Sierra Club Executive Director
In the wake of last week’s Congressional hearing on formaldehyde in FEMA trailers and FEMA’s statement to the Associated Press that it will continue to sell and distribute surplus disaster relief trailers the Sierra Club issued the following statement.

"It is reprehensible that FEMA plans to continue selling and distributing trailers with the knowledge that these trailers could have potentially toxic levels of formaldehyde.

 

Despite mounting evidence that the problem is more prevalent and serious than originally thought, FEMA continues to give these toxic trailers to disaster victims and even to sell them to Native American tribes across the country.

"No more trailers should be distributed or sold until FEMA has completed its investigation into formaldehyde outgassing in the trailers and can ensure that all of the trailers going out are safe. Citizens should be able to trust their government to provide them with safe, healthy housing.

"Unfortunately this problem extends beyond the trailers distributed by FEMA. People living in trailers across the country, and even our soldiers in Iraq are being exposed to dangerous levels of formaldehyde. Unsafe levels of formaldehyde have been found in well over 200 trailers housing troops in Iraq.

"The best solution is for FEMA to buy trailers made with safer alternatives to the formaldehyde-based glues which cause this health threat."

As the first group to discover the toxicity of FEMA trailers, the Sierra Club has taken a lead role in fighting for better disaster assistance and emergency housing. Testing by the Sierra Club in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama showed that 88 percent of trailers tested in 2006 and 2007 had formaldehyde levels above the EPA's recommended limit. Even the EPA's own testing showed that FEMA trailers had average formaldehyde levels three times higher than the EPA standard. Tests currently being conducted by the Sierra Club and Texas Wildlife and Parks on FEMA trailers in Texas are also showing high formaldehyde levels.