13 contaminated FEMA trailers turn up in Missouri

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

ST. LOUIS – Thirteen former FEMA trailers deemed unlivable and set for the scrap heap somehow ended up in a mobile home park near St. Louis, where they were close to being offered as housing, a state official said Tuesday.

The trailers, which had been issued after Gulf Coast hurricanes, had high levels of formaldehyde and were to be sold only for scrap, said Missouri Public Service Chairman Robert Clayton. Prolonged exposure to formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in building materials, can lead to breathing problems and is also believed to cause cancer.

"It is a serious issue, these homes being held out to the public as safe, when they're not," Clayton said.

The trailers were sold at a government auction in Florida to a broker, Truck Center Sales and Equipment in Tallahassee, and are now owned by KDM Development Corp. in Pittsford, N.Y., said Martin Toma, director of Jefferson County's code enforcement division.

An inspector in Toma's department caught the discrepancy when a mobile home park asked for permission to use the trailers as housing. No one had moved into the homes.

Toma said it's unclear at what point the trailers were passed off as livable. No one has been accused of wrongdoing.

A listed number could not be found for Truck Center Sales, and a phone message left Tuesday with KDM Development was not immediately returned.

Ron Pleus, the state Public Service Commission's manufactured housing program director, said the trailers had federal Housing and Urban Development labels on them, which normally show the homes comply with building codes and safety standards.

"The home labels should have been removed. It was an error between the agencies," Pleus said.

The Public Service Commission has since removed the labels to show the trailers cannot be used for housing.

State officials said the incident appears to be unique in Missouri.

But a spokesman for the Sierra Club, Oliver Bernstein, said some former FEMA trailers that registered high levels of formaldehyde have resurfaced and are being used as homes.

"We've heard of numerous cases of these trailers sitting on dealers' lots around the nation," Bernstein said by phone from Austin, Texas.

"We are concerned that these units are still out there."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided trailers or mobile homes to more than 140,000 families displaced by 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But government tests later found elevated levels of formaldehyde in many of the trailers. The finding has led to lawsuits by hundreds of former occupants who say their health was put at risk. The first four trials are scheduled to begin later this year.

FEMA spokeswoman Alexandra Kirin said 1,100 mobile homes and trailers have been sold as scrap since Oct. 2008, and that all had physical damage and were not scrapped solely because of high formaldehyde levels.

She said buyers must agree that scrap mobile homes and trailers will not be lived in. The word "scrap" is displayed on sales documents, and buyers must pass along certain documents prepared by government agencies educating about formaldehyde to any future buyers.

Since December 2008, auctioned mobile homes and trailers also have been spraypainted with the word "scrap."

FEMA said beginning in January it began removing the HUD labels before turning over the trailers for GSA auction.

link

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

That is my industry, and the formaldehyde issue is way overblown! Many manufactured materials release formaldehyde, especially when new. They could probably go in now and test those homes, and not find any excessive levels, if any at all. Formaldehyde and paraformaldehyde are used as toilet deodorants in many public restrooms, and in chemical toilets.

Edited March 4, 2009 by Mister_Bill

[HAL 9000 96]

So... Mr. B... hook me up. I need to make a tissue cryoprotectant... 30% Sucrose in 4% PFA diluted in Phosphate Buffered Saline. Or do I have to go to Mizzou to scrape some PFA off of those trailer walls?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

So... Mr. B... hook me up. I need to make a tissue cryoprotectant... 30% Sucrose in 4% PFA diluted in Phosphate Buffered Saline. Or do I have to go to Mizzou to scrape some PFA off of those trailer walls?

I am an RV Tech, not a biochemist!

Edited March 4, 2009 by Mister_Bill

[HAL 9000 96]

Woo hoo!! Then drive me up some of that PFA with STYLE!

[HAL 9000 96]

Airborne Exposure Limits:

Toxic formaldehyde gas may be produced if paraformaldehyde decomposes.

For Formaldehyde:

- OSHA Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) -

0.5 ppm (Action Level), 0.75 ppm (TWA), 2 ppm (STEL), Cancer-Suspect Agent.

- ACGIH Threshold Limit Value (TLV) -

0.3 ppm (STEL/Ceiling), A2 - Suspected human carcinogen.

Toxicological Data:

Paraformaldehyde: Oral rat LD50: 800 mg/kg; Inhal.rat LC50: > 170 mg/m3/1H; irritation skin rabbit: 500 mg, severe; investigated as a mutagen. Formaldehyde: Oral rat LD50: 100 mg/kg; skin rabbit LD50: 270 mg/kg; inhalation rat LC50: 203 mg/m3; investigated as a tumorigen, mutagen, reproductive effector.

Carcinogenicity:

Formaldehyde cancer status: NTP Anticipated Carcinogen; IARC Category 2A; EPA/IRIS Group B1; OSHA Cancer-Suspect Agent.

Label Hazard Warning:

DANGER! MAY BE FATAL IF SWALLOWED, INHALED OR ABSORBED THROUGH SKIN. CAUSES IRRITATION TO SKIN, EYES AND RESPIRATORY TRACT. SENSITIZER. SUSPECT CANCER HAZARD. EMITS FORMALDEHYDE WHICH MAY CAUSE CANCER. Risk of cancer depends upon duration and level of exposure. COMBUSTIBLE SOLID.

Label Precautions:

Do not breathe dust or vapor.

Do not get in eyes, on skin, or on clothing.

Keep container closed.

Use only with adequate ventilation.

Wash thoroughly after handling.

Keep away from heat, sparks and flame.

Link.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Wow! In work in a dangerous industry, huh?

[HAL 9000 96]

Wow! In work in a dangerous industry, huh?

Only if I take a good swig of that stuff. Then at least my GI tract would be preserved for a bit. Labs have it all... radioisotopes not even 20 feet away from me in gamma and beta shielding.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Thetford Aqua-Kem Concentrated Liquid Holding Tank Deodorant

CAUTION: Contains Methyl Alcohol and Formaldehyde. Cannot be made non-poisonous. Avoid contact with skin, eyes, or mucous membranes. Use only in a well-ventilated area. Keep away from heat and open flame.

Wow! In work in a dangerous industry, huh?

Only if I take a good swig of that stuff. Then at least my GI tract would be preserved for a bit. Labs have it all... radioisotopes not even 20 feet away from me in gamma and beta shielding.

I hear it is also found in most German beers.

Edited March 4, 2009 by Mister_Bill

[HAL 9000 96]

Thetford Aqua-Kem Concentrated Liquid Holding Tank Deodorant

CAUTION: Contains Methyl Alcohol and Formaldehyde. Cannot be made non-poisonous. Avoid cintact with skin, eyes, or mucous membranes. Use only in a well-ventilated area. Keep away from heat and open flame.

I think the exposure rate is a bit different there mate... Don't know about you but people would rather spend more time enclosed in a [temporary as it may be] trailer home than in a port-a-potty or an RV head.

Unless you know people I don't.

Which is why I prefer Irish and Dutch beers.