"It was almost five years ago that Hurricane Katrina took the lives of 1,836 people. Many of the survivors were given temporary housing to live in while permanent housing was made available. For many, this meant living in trailers provided by the government. Eventually in news reports, these temporary housing units were reportedly making many of the hurricane victims sick. The government response was to began moving some of these people out of these trailers because of health illnesses thought to be related to formaldehyde toxic poisoning. Formaldehyde is a chemical that emits gasses which the Environmental Protection Agency considers to be highly toxic and carcinogenic (known to cause lung, nose, and throat cancer) but which is not regulated for trailer manufacturing in the United States. Formaldehyde is a chemical used in cheap building materials like particle board, plywood, curtains, molded plastics, countertops, glue, carpet, insulation and wallpaper.

In June 2007, the Associated Press published an article stating 2,000 unused FEMA trailers were being released to tribes who requested them. South Dakota Sen. Tom Johnson advocated for the release of the trailers after he said he saw pictures of tens of thousands of empty mobile homes sitting unused while South Dakota Indians were struggling through a tough winter with inadequate housing. The neighboring Turtle Mountain reservation took the opportunity to obtain some of the FEMA trailers in North Dakota, which many of them were not necessarily going to tribal members who desperately needed them.

In recent months. the Turtle Mountain Tribe, through agreements with the federal government, has been requesting more FEMA trailers.

Unfortunately, the recipients of these camper-style trailers may have a toxic time bomb on their hands. These camper trailers have been reported to have high levels of formaldehyde and are not to be used as permanent housing. In a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, exposure to the formaldehyde toxins can create irritated eyes, breathing problems, headaches, asthma attacks, coughing, congestive heart disease, nausea, depression, memory-impairment, skin rashes, respiratory problems and can even lead to cancer. To make matters worse, high temperatures or high humidity increase the toxin levels. Environmentalists have argued the trailers contaminated with toxins cannot be disposed of because they will harm the environment. Interestingly, disclosure documents noting health hazards and other information are not being properly given to tribal members who have obtained FEMA trailers from the Turtle Mountain Tribe, according to a couple of tribal recipients."

Get the Story:
Delvin Cree: Toxic time bombs? (The Minot Daily News 6/20)