What part of "toxic levels of formaldehyde" does FEMA not understand?
Fifteen months after the federal disaster relief agency decided to immediately stop using, buying and
selling temporary trailer homes because many were found to be contaminated
with formaldehyde, they are back for sale on a government auction website.
"FEMA Trailers: They Call It Scrap, We Call It a Great Deal!" reads the headline from one auction listing on governmentauctions.org, which provides information about government surplus materials and also sells the property itself. The unwanted FEMA trailers had been available for private purchase from March 2007 until last December, when they were pulled from the auction block due to Congressional and news media inquiries into their safety --- or as the website put it, "out of an abundance of
caution."
Victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 had initially been given the trailers as temporary shelters, though quickly residents began complaining of headaches, bloody noses, and chronic respiratory problems. When investigators took air quality samples, they found nearly all trailers had high --- and sometimes toxic --- levels of the cancer-linked chemical formaldehyde. Some trailers contained formaldehyde levels 50 times above what the EPA considers an "elevated" level.
Last July, amid the advertised "fire sale" discounts on the surplus FEMA trailers, the Centers for Disase Control (CDC) released a report stating that anyone living still living in a
FEMA allocated trailer with over 500 parts per billion of formaldehyde should move out immediately. (The average house has between 10 and 20 parts per billion of
formaldehyde; the National Cancer Institute has set 100 ppb as its level of concern.)
Read OhMyGov's previous coverage of the FEMA trailer debacle here and here.
Unable to sell the surplus trailers as residences because of the well-publicized formaldehyde scare, FEMA instead disposed of the trailers by declaring them "scrap." This freed them up to be sold as potential office spaces, auxiliary units, or storage facilities. "Good
News! FEMA Trailers are back on sale" declared the auctions website in announcing the reversal.
"Now -- after nearly a yearlong
respite -- the FEMA trailers are back on
sale," it reads. " While the government states that these 'scrap' FEMA Trailers should not be
used for occupancy, some have posited that the trailers are suitable for other
non-occupancy uses such as for office space, command posts, or storage.
We're sure you'll figure out your own use."
A number of the auctions end today, so if you're looking to find some cheap, contaminated office space, or just own a piece of Hurricane Katrina history, you'd better act fast!
At least there's full disclosure
Also on the topic:
[+] TOP STORY: Toxic trailers from FEMA still source of debate and concern
[+] CDC Urges People Out of FEMA Trailers
[+] GovernmentAuctions.org website