FEMA Housing Filled With Toxic Gas, Tests Show

The mobile homes and trailers FEMA provided for displaced New Orleans residents are brimming with toxic formaldehyde gas, according to test results obtained by MSNBC. In 95% of cases, formaldehyde levels were at least twice the CDC’s maximum recommendations. The federal government has not followed through on promises to test the homes, some of which have been inhabited for 2 years.

FEMA did test trailers last October and has since stopped distributing them, but mobile homes were never tested and continue to be deployed. Internal e-mails show FEMA intentionally stalled for liability reasons. “[D]o not initiate any testing until we give the OK,” one lawyer advised. “Once you get results…the clock is running on our duty to respond to them.” (More FEMA stories.)