Start writing! This is SERIOUS! FEMA trailers on way to California!!


Good morning-

I got a very distressing phone call yesterday from a Native journalist who has heard that the govt. is planning on using the FEMA trailers and mobile homes that they have on hand, to house people displaced by the California fires.

Some of you who are new friends of mine may not have read the newspaper series that I wrote about the FEMA trailers being overloaded with formaldehyde gases and that people living in them are VERY VERY SICK!

Please help me get the word out to any and ALL people who may be offered these government FEMA trailers and mobile homes as temporary housing, that they should try EVERY available avenue before being forced into one of those units! PLEASE! If you need more info, contact me and I will provide you with whatever you need.

TRIBAL MEMBERS- if you know tribal leaders at any of the reservations out there, PLEASE get in touch with me so that I can let these leaders know what is being offered to them. I know that many people will have no other options BUT to live in one of these units, but we need to connect these folks to my contacts in the Sierra Club who have been testing and PROVING the formaldehyde levels in the units used by hurricane victims.

We can thank our government for this mess folks. They have KNOWN for a very long time that these units were potential death-traps but they have not spent ONE DIME on building new and safer ones for victims of disaster in this country. Not one dime.

Please, help me get the word out so people in California are forewarned!

blessings,
Bluejay
____________ _________ _________ _________ ____

I will be getting in touch with my contact at the CDC to find out WHY they are delaying the testing and will let you know what I find out. Seems a bit odd that they are STOPPING the tests in time with the needs for trailers and mobile homes to house victims of the California fires. I got an urgetn call from some tribal members last night that are being told that they will be moved into FEMA provided trailers. I guess the hard work to inform people has worked, but sadly, the government has NOT put any money into building new SAFE units for disaster victims. Looks like another round of innocents will be herded into those trailers that are full of formaldehyde! !!

blessings,
Shelley Bluejay Pierce

CDC postpones air-quality testing of FEMA trailers

By Ana Radelat
The Clarion-Ledger Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Plans to begin testing the air quality of Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers that house thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims in Mississippi were abruptly postponed Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many trailer and mobile home residents have complained of health issues resulting from high levels of formaldehyde in the units.

The CDC planned to begin testing the air quality of about 150 travel trailers and mobile homes in the state today. But CDC spokesman Charles Green said plans to randomly test the units have been postponed for "a short while," probably about two weeks. He did not give a reason for the delay.

Green said the CDC would try to test all makes and models. The agency began calling hurricane victims in Mississippi this week to get permission for the testing, he said.

After the Mississippi testing is completed, the agency plans to test about 150 trailers in Louisiana.

Green said CDC statisticians told him randomly testing 300 trailers would be enough to help the agency determine if any of the thousands of trailers that have housed hurricane victims pose health threats.

Formaldehyde is a toxic chemical released by many construction materials, including plywood and spray-on insulating foam. It is also a naturally occurring chemical. Elevated levels of formaldehyde gas can cause headaches, burning in the eyes and throat, nausea and difficulty breathing. Formaldehyde is also a suspected carcinogen.

The CDC testing is coming almost four months after FEMA asked the Atlanta-based agency to test the trailers. SRA-Constella Inc. of Fairfax, Va., will conduct the tests. Some of the thousands of Katrina victims who still live in the units say the testing plans are inadequate and come too late.

Joseph Carmouche, 81, has lived in a FEMA mobile home in Kiln since December 2005. He said his emphysema worsened after moving into the unit, which replaced his former home - also a mobile home - that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

He said his wife Daisy, 75, developed asthma and a rash and worries the ailments are caused by elevated levels of formaldehyde in their home.

Carmouche is concerned the CDC's plans to selectively test trailers won't help people like him.

"How are we going to know if they don't test our homes?" he said.

A testing kit supplied by the Sierra Club showed slightly elevated levels of formaldehyde in Carmouche's home, he said.

Mitchell Kizziah, 65, of Biloxi suspects his FEMA trailer caused his pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed in August and is often fatal.

Kizziah said he doesn't need the CDC to test his trailer because he knows it's dangerous. He said a Sierra Club test of his trailer revealed the formaldehyde gas in his home is two to three times the level considered safe.

He hopes FEMA sends him the new trailer it promised. But he also wants the agency to know the temporary home it gave him shortly after Katrina poses a health hazard.

"I know it's dangerous, but I don't know (FEMA) will accept a do-your-own test as proof," He said.

As part of the agency's efforts to determine whether the travel trailers and mobile homes are dangerous, the CDC tested 50 unoccupied units housed in Purvis last month.

Green said the tests revealed formaldehyde levels ranging from low to high.

"It was pretty much all over the place," he said.