{"id":789,"date":"2010-07-01T08:50:21","date_gmt":"2010-07-01T13:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=789"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:01:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:01:01","slug":"katrina-chronicles-meet-the-bp-oil-disaster-formaldehyde-laced-trailers-are-back-in-the-gulf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2010\/07\/01\/katrina-chronicles-meet-the-bp-oil-disaster-formaldehyde-laced-trailers-are-back-in-the-gulf\/","title":{"rendered":"Katrina chronicles meet the BP oil disaster: Formaldehyde-laced trailers are back in the Gulf"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D.<\/em>, is a Senior Scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n

In another truly bizarre collision between recent Gulf coast disasters (on top of Hurricane Alex<\/a>), Ian Urbina of the New York Times<\/em> reports on the front page today<\/a> that those toxic trailers \u2013 sold at auction by FEMA back in March<\/a> \u2013 have been reincarnated once again, this time as housing for Gulf cleanup workers.<\/p>\n

I had blogged about the sale at the time<\/a>, questioning the viability of FEMA\u2019s assurance that \u201cwholesale buyers from the auction must sign contracts attesting that trailers will not be used, sold or advertised as housing, and that trailers will carry a sticker saying, \u2018Not to be used for housing\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 In that post, I had cynically asked:\u00a0 \u201cThink that\u2019s likely to be enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

With good reason, it turns out.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Dozens of the trailers have been sold or otherwise provided to unwitting workers who are flocking to the Gulf to fill the jobs being offered by disaster relief firms.\u00a0 As the Times<\/em> story put it: \u00a0\u201cThey have been showing up in mobile-home parks, open fields and local boatyards as thousands of cleanup workers have scrambled to find housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And those warning labels that are supposed to alert occupants that the trailers are unsuited for residential use?\u00a0 Nowhere to be found, despite FEMA\u2019s protestations that the label requirement and ban on use of the trailers for housing remain in effect and that owners are obliged to inform subsequent buyers of the prohibition.<\/p>\n

At least some effort, however feeble, is being mounted by another federal agency to enforce the ban.\u00a0 The Times<\/em> reports:<\/p>\n

\u201cThese rules are not being followed in many cases, however. Officials with the inspector general\u2019s office of the General Services Administration said Wednesday that they had opened at least seven cases concerning buyers who might not have posted the certification and formaldehyde warnings on trailers they sold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will this recurring nightmare never end?\u00a0 In my earlier post<\/a>, I had noted that this sorry series of episodes is a striking illustration of how the lifecycles of dangerous chemicals can endure when our policies let chemicals get so deeply embedded into commerce without requiring they be shown to be safe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How ironic that this latest installment comes just as a bill to restrict formaldehyde in pressed wood products (like the plywood used in those trailers) arrives on the President\u2019s desk<\/a>.\u00a0 That new law will at least cut off the source of supply \u2013 but will do nothing to stem this legacy exposure, which continues with no apparent end in sight.<\/p>\n

One of the key demands that EDF and other members of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families<\/a><\/em><\/strong> coalition are making for reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) \u2013 the underlying federal policy that has allowed all this to unfold \u2013 is to empower the Environmental Protection Agency to act immediately to reduce exposures to dangerous chemicals like formaldehyde, by imposing controls not only on their production and specific uses, but across the full lifecycle of such chemicals and products containing them.<\/p>\n

I urge you to make your voices heard:<\/p>\n