3/3/2008, 6:27 p.m. CST
By MIKE STOBBE
The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal health officials have released the first brand-specific information about which trailer homes provided to Gulf Coast hurricane victims had the highest levels of toxic fumes.

Trailers made by Gulf Stream, Keystone, Pilgrim and Forest River each showed higher levels of formaldehyde fumes than the other brands.

Air samples from those trailers were more than four times what is found in newer U.S. homes, according to a study released Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Calls from the Associated Press to Gulf Stream, Keystone and Forest River for comment were not immediately returned.

Last month, CDC officials urged that Gulf Coast hurricane victims be moved out of their government-issued trailers as quickly as possible after tests found toxic levels of formaldehyde fumes.

Fumes from 519 trailer and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi were — on average — about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes, the CDC found. In some trailers, the levels were nearly 40 times customary exposure levels, raising fears that residents could contract respiratory problems.

CDC officials advised the Federal Emergency Management Agency — which supplied the trailers — to move people out quickly, with priority given to families with children, elderly people or anyone with asthma or other chronic conditions.

FEMA provided a variety of brands of small trailer homes, larger park model homes and even larger mobile homes. Initially, CDC officials did not release information specific to different brands.

But in a 21-page report released Monday, the agency described in detail how it did the study and what was found in different types of trailers.

The study did not prove people became sick from the fumes, but merely took a snapshot reading of fume levels. They only tested for formaldehyde, a colorless gas with a pungent smell that can cause respiratory problems and has been classified by scientists as a carcinogen.

Air samples from 358 travel trailers, 82 park model and 79 mobile homes were taken from Dec. 21 through Jan. 23, came back last week, McGeehin said.

The CDC found average levels of 77 parts formaldehyde per billion parts of air, significantly higher than the 10 to 17 parts per billion concentration seen in newer homes. Levels were as high as 590 parts per billion.

In the latest report, the CDC found an average level of 108 parts per billion in Pilgrim-brand travel trailers, 103 in trailers made by Gulf Stream, 102 in those made by Keystone and 85 in those made by Forest River.

Those four brands were significantly higher than the rest of the travel trailer brands, said Mike McGeehin, director of a CDC division that focuses on environmental hazards.

It's not clear whether the finding in the Gulf Coast trailers can be applied to travel trailers elsewhere in the country, McGeehin said. Scientists have said that heat and other factors may increase formaldehyde levels.

"We have to limit ourselves to the data in front of us," he said. "Right now I don't feel any cause for alarm for people who own these units."

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov