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MARDI GRAS CELEBRATIONS OVERSHADOWED BY TOXIC TRAILERS: "Maybe by next year we will have more to celebrate," say FEMA trailer residents on the Gulf Coast The national spotlight returns to New Orleans for next week's famed Mardi Gras celebration. Large and small towns throughout the region are celebrating this carnival season but many residents are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of flooded homes are still awaiting repair, many just miles from the beads and streamers along Bourbon Street. This Mardi Gras, thousands of people are still waiting for insurance payments and federal funding in order to return and rebuild their homes. Others are experiencing the frustration of living in cramped FEMA trailers that are causing them serious health problems. Testing by the Sierra Club in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama showed that 83 percent of trailers tested had formaldehyde levels above the EPA limit of 0.10 parts per million. "FEMA trailers should come with a warning sign: 'HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH!,' said Leslie March, chair of the Sierra Club's Gulf Coast Environmental Restoration Taskforce. "Hurricane victims do not deserve to be victimized by their own government." After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA purchased about 102,000 travel trailers at a cost of $2.6 billion to house the victims of the nation's largest natural disaster. Some people waited months to get their trailers only to find out that the cheap building materials used were giving off toxic formaldehyde vapors. Many people report not being able to stay in their trailers for more than five minutes without experiencing irritated eyes, breathing problems, headaches, nausea or skin rashes. "We know one family that moved into a storage shed because their daughter threw up every time she spent time in the FEMA trailer," said Becky Gillette, co-chair of the Mississippi chapter of the Sierra Club. "Another man sleeping in his driveway told me, 'My FEMA trailer is killing me,'" she added. FEMA continues to deny the problem that has placed tens of thousands of people at risk for increased respiratory infections, irritated eyes and mucus membranes, as well as an increased risk for cancer. FEMA claims that only a few people have complained about the formaldehyde problem. No steps have been taken to protect people's health by providing air purifiers or other remedies. "Everyone loves a party, but when the party's over, we will still need safe housing for our residents," said Gillette. "FEMA should admit the trailer problem and correct it so that disaster victims can depend on safe non-toxic housing in the future." ### |
