Sickened residents blame formaldehyde

Molly Reid
The Times-Picayune
March 5, 2009

Responding to pressure to hear from Gulf Coast residents on the topic, the Environmental Protection Agency hosted a hearing Wednesday in New Orleans where locals were given a chance to recount how formaldehyde-laden trailers supplied by FEMA affected their health.

In the wake of a flood of complaints from trailer users since Hurricane Katrina, agency officials Wednesday announced they are considering limiting levels of formaldehyde in pressed-wood products, in accordance with the Toxic Substances Control Act.

For now, though, the EPA's position is that "the available information . . . (is) not sufficient to regulate formaldehyde emissions from pressed wood," EPA branch chief Lynn Vendinello said. That could change, however, and the public comments gathered around the country at a series of hearings, including Wednesday's meeting, will go into that process, she said.

Two ongoing studies, expected to take at least a year, will help determine the dangers of exposure to the chemical, Vendinello said. The agency also plans to look into methods of wood manufacturing that might reduce formaldehyde emissions, she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2007 found that formaldehyde levels in hundreds of occupied trailers were about five times the level in most modern housing. The CDC recommended that families living in the units spend as much time as possible outdoors, that they keep the temperature at the lowest comfortable level and that they make sure their trailers are well-ventilated.

That Wednesday's meeting even occurred largely owed to an intense campaign led by the Sierra Club. The EPA initially scheduled public meetings on formaldehyde emissions in five places: North Carolina; Portland, Ore,; Chicago; Dallas; and Washington. Conspicuously absent was New Orleans, which hosted thousands of FEMA trailers after the storm and "where tens of thousands of . . . families were exposed to formaldehyde," said Darryl Malek-Wiley, regional representative for the Sierra Club.

Vendinello said Dallas was intended as the regional representative for the original round of meetings. But the EPA faced repeated requests from the Sierra Club to host a meeting in New Orleans, she said. The decision to do so was announced three days after the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

"We were hoping (the Obama administration) would approve us coming (to New Orleans), and after the inauguration, the meeting was approved," she said.

It was important for local families exposed to formaldehyde to tell their stories, Malek-Wiley said.

"Nationally, we worked to get the EPA to hold a hearing down here because we felt, ultimately, the majority of people impacted by this issue were in New Orleans," he said.

One couple, Mary and Richard Bain, traveled from Saucier, Miss., to be heard. They lived in a FEMA trailer for two years after their home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

Three months after moving out, Richard Bain was diagnosed with glioablastoma multiforme, an aggressive brain tumor with no known cause but which studies have suggested is linked to chemical exposure.

Several months later, Mary Bain was diagnosed with emphysema, despite the fact that she has never smoked, she said. When the couple requested a formaldehyde test in their trailer, the level was nearly 19 times the recommended level for long-term exposure, she said.

"We trusted the government to help us," she said. "It's killing us. We're both on borrowed time now."