Mobile home safety is questioned

Government-issued mobile homes are sprouting up in flood-ravaged regions around the Susquehanna River, with more than 150 promised to Luzerne County families.

But are these new homes for flood victims humane habitations or, as some have speculated, toxic tin cans?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2010 began selling off more than 100,000 travel trailers that had been provided to victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Louisiana and Mississippi. Two years earlier, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found higher than average levels of formaldehyde in the trailers.

Becky Gillette, Formaldehyde Campaign Director for national environmental-advocacy group Sierra Club, claims FEMA did not test formaldehyde levels in its new mobile housing units before purchasing them, and contends they are probably just as likely to seep formaldehyde.

She said she is willing to pay to test interior air quality in mobile housing units arriving in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

“Disaster victims are the last people who have time to be advocates or activists,” Gillette said. “Most people when they get their trailer, they’re just so darn grateful that the government is helping them out, you see a lot of them who don’t want to complain.

“I just hate to see another set of disaster victims facing those same issues. It seems to me that they’ve turned there backs on all of the lessons of Katrina and Rita.”

Formaldehyde hazards

Formaldehyde is an organic material used in a wide variety of products, including glues and resins used in pressed wood, carpeting and other home-construction materials. It is also found in cigarette smoke and smog.

According to the CDC, inhaling formaldehyde can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, throat and skin, sore throat, cough and nosebleeds.

It is also a known carcinogen that is particularly linked to nose and throat cancer.FEMA spokesman Mike Sweet said the mobile housing units arriving in Northeastern Pennsylvania meet all construction standards set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and that residents moving into trailers should not worry about formaldehyde exposure.

“All these housing units are built to HUD standards and these units are not being built specifically for FEMA,” Sweet said. “These are the same type of mobile homes people buy nationwide.”

Sweet said he couldn’t say whether the trailers had been tested for formaldehyde, but that they have ventilation units and enough windows to maintain adequate ventilation.

Gillette, however, claimed that nothing in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s guidelines has changed relative to formaldehyde and mobile homes since the CDC study, so it is likely that the new trailers contain just as much formaldehyde as the old ones.

“The HUD standards were not good enough in Katrina, and they aren’t good enough now,” Gillette said. “The government has taken on the role of a landlord, and landlords are supposed to provide safe housing.”

She is offering to purchase formaldehyde test kits for FEMA trailer residents willing to share the results with Sierra Club, adding that she is hoping to test at least five trailers. Gillette can be reached 479-253-6963 or through her website, www.toxictrailers.com.

Gillette was one of the first to bring the issue of formaldehyde in the trailers to the government’s attention.

Though she never lived in a FEMA housing unit, Gillette said her neighborhood in Ocean Springs, Miss., was flooded in Hurricane Katrina and people all around her were living in the trailers.

Issues in 2006

When some began complaining about respiratory problems and nosebleeds, she and the Sierra Club started testing the air quality in trailers in 2006 and began finding elevated formaldehyde levels.

“A lot of my friends, a lot of fellow Sierra Club members were living in these trailers,” Gillette said. “It was impossible to ignore the problem. For us anyway, it was impossible.”

The CDC responded by conducting its own tests. In December 2007 and January 2008, the CDC tested more than 500 trailers provided by FEMA to residents of Louisiana and Mississippi who were displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

CDC found levels of formaldehyde that were higher than would be expected inside most homes in the United States, and recommended FEMA move residents out of the trailers.

CDC found an average level of 77 parts per billion in the tested units, and concentrations as high as 590 parts per billion. In all unit types tested, which included trailers, mobile homes and smaller park units, formaldehyde concentrations above 100 parts per billion were identified.

Persons sensitive to formaldehyde may develop symptoms when exposed to levels above 100 parts per billion.

CDC also predicted it likely underestimated formaldehyde levels because the tests were taken in winter and in trailers that were at least two years old. Formaldehyde levels were likely higher in newer trailers and in warmer conditions.

Sweet said no travel trailers, which showed the highest concentrations of formaldehyde in the CDC study, are being sent to Pennsylvania. Rather, FEMA is bringing in mobile homes and park units.

FEMA has approved temporary housing units for at least 488 Pennsylvania households in nine counties, with 165 promised to Luzerne County flood victims. They began arriving at a staging area in Plains Township about two weeks ago.

Sweet said the housing units are being provided as a tertiary housing option for flood victims. FEMA would like to see flood victims remain in their homes when it is safe to do so, or stay in rental properties close to their homes.

He said Luzerne County residents expressed an uncanny interest in the trailers in the weeks following the September flood; an oddity, in his experience.

Family not concerned

One family living in a FEMA park unit said they have had no concerns about the potential emissions. Beatrice and Stephen Solovey of Plains Township moved into a FEMA trailer several weeks ago after the single-story home they built in 1964 was inundated in the flood. They said they haven’t been bothered by any smells or physical ailments since moving in, and aren’t concerned about formaldehyde.

“It’s a place to sleep and a place to eat and a place to wash up,” Stephen Solovey said. “What more could you ask for?”