Wednesday, September 26, 2007
COULD THIS BE A PROBLEM IN OTHER RV'S?
RV Business
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Air-quality tests are expected to begin late next month on government-issued trailers in Mississippi as federal officials probe concerns that the temporary homes for disaster victims are contaminated by higher levels of formaldehyde.
The Houston Chronicle reported that scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta traveled to Mississippi on Tuesday (Sept. 25) to take samples that will help them develop protocols for testing trailers for levels of formaldehyde, which can cause respiratory problems.
This first round of tests is only on trailers that were stored in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina and haven't been lived in by Gulf Coast residents displaced by the 2005 storm, CDC spokesman Charles Green said Tuesday.
The CDC hasn't set a timetable for testing some of the occupied trailers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency 9FEMA) provided to tens of thousands of people in Mississippi and Louisiana displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Green added.
"The protocols for testing occupied trailers is still in the approval process," he said.
Green said CDC scientists are "optimistic" that tests on unoccupied trailers will start in three to four weeks.
In the meantime, hundreds of Gulf Coast families have asked FEMA to move them out of trailers amid concerns that the units are exposing them to dangerous levels of formaldehyde.
A total of about 13,000 trailers in Mississippi were occupied as of last Friday, but about 720 families have asked to be relocated, according to a FEMA spokesman. The agency already has moved about 260 of those families out of trailers and into apartments, hotel rooms, mobile homes or government-issued "cottages" that are billed as roomier alternatives to FEMA trailers.
FEMA has temporarily suspended the sale of its used trailers and said it won't be sheltering victims of future disasters in them until safety concerns are resolved. On Tuesday, FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker referred questions about the air-quality tests to the CDC.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Air-quality tests are expected to begin late next month on government-issued trailers in Mississippi as federal officials probe concerns that the temporary homes for disaster victims are contaminated by higher levels of formaldehyde.
The Houston Chronicle reported that scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta traveled to Mississippi on Tuesday (Sept. 25) to take samples that will help them develop protocols for testing trailers for levels of formaldehyde, which can cause respiratory problems.
This first round of tests is only on trailers that were stored in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina and haven't been lived in by Gulf Coast residents displaced by the 2005 storm, CDC spokesman Charles Green said Tuesday.
The CDC hasn't set a timetable for testing some of the occupied trailers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency 9FEMA) provided to tens of thousands of people in Mississippi and Louisiana displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Green added.
"The protocols for testing occupied trailers is still in the approval process," he said.
Green said CDC scientists are "optimistic" that tests on unoccupied trailers will start in three to four weeks.
In the meantime, hundreds of Gulf Coast families have asked FEMA to move them out of trailers amid concerns that the units are exposing them to dangerous levels of formaldehyde.
A total of about 13,000 trailers in Mississippi were occupied as of last Friday, but about 720 families have asked to be relocated, according to a FEMA spokesman. The agency already has moved about 260 of those families out of trailers and into apartments, hotel rooms, mobile homes or government-issued "cottages" that are billed as roomier alternatives to FEMA trailers.
FEMA has temporarily suspended the sale of its used trailers and said it won't be sheltering victims of future disasters in them until safety concerns are resolved. On Tuesday, FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker referred questions about the air-quality tests to the CDC.
