Editorial: A sickening situation

Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007 | 7:04 a.m.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has halted the sales and donations of disaster trailers while officials investigate reports that victims of the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes were sickened by prolonged formaldehyde exposure from the trailers.

Formaldehyde is commonly used or present in building materials, such as the composite wood and plywood used in the construction of the trailers, and exposure generally is airborne. Prolonged exposure can cause ill effects in humans such as respiratory problems, nausea, nosebleeds and headaches. Scientists have been dispatched to Louisiana and Mississippi to determine what level of formaldehyde is acceptable by health standards because existing standards don't apply to travel trailers or recreational vehicles.

FEMA mobilized about 120,000 trailers as temporary housing for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. A number of those victims reported health problems last year that included nosebleeds and headaches. According to a story by the Associated Press on Friday, Congress demanded investigation of the claims earlier this year after documents revealed that FEMA did not investigate the reports on the advice of the agency's lawyers.

So last Wednesday - as the nation entered what is historically considered the most active two-month stretch of the hurricane season - FEMA announced it was suspending use of the trailers "out of an abundance of caution," until the health studies are complete.

It is regrettable that FEMA didn't feel it necessary to exercise an "abundance of caution" when reports of sickness first arose last year. Instead, agency officials waited until the beginning of the most crucial portion of the hurricane season to determine whether FEMA's temporary housing options are safe. This agency, which has a desperately poor record of disaster response - especially in the wake of hurricanes - continues to make decisions that defy logic and do nothing to instill a sense of competence in the agency's ability to do its job.