The mobile homes and trailers FEMA provided for displaced New Orleans residents are brimming with toxic formaldehyde gas, according to test results obtained by MSNBC. In 95% of cases, formaldehyde levels were at least twice the CDC’s maximum recommendations. The federal government has not followed through on promises to test the homes, some of which have been inhabited for 2 years.
FEMA did test trailers last October and has since stopped distributing them, but mobile homes were never tested and continue to be deployed. Internal e-mails show FEMA intentionally stalled for liability reasons. “[D]o not initiate any testing until we give the OK,” one lawyer advised. “Once you get results…the clock is running on our duty to respond to them.” (More FEMA stories.)