Baby Death Due To FEMA Formaldehyde Poison

The Sea Coast Echo

A Bay St. Louis resident who worked in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency following Hurricane Katrina alleges the embattled agency knew of potentially dangerous levels of formaldehyde in trailers in December 2005 and the death of a Diamondhead newborn may be connected. A congressional hearing held last month have resulted in changes to many of FEMA’s procedures, including distributing formaldehyde information, revising guidelines of swapping trailers to temporally halting sales and deployment of travel trailers. The hearing comes after nearly a year of investigations by the media and public interest groups.

But Jesse Fineran, a former Hancock County Emergency Operations Center hazardous material specialist, said he brought the issue to the attention of numerous federal agencies in the daily meetings Hancock County EOC with government representatives nearly two years ago.
Fineran’s involvement began in October 2005, when his wife, who has asthma, needed aid after stepping into the couple’s son’s FEMA trailer. Fineran received a trailer a couple of months later, where his wife experienced the same problems. Fineran had both his son’s trailer and his trailer tested for formaldehyde. He said Tests showed levels of 0.38 and 0.21 parts per million, respectively.
Fineran’s son had his trailer replaced and Fineran received a special “product sensitive” trailer. Tests on these were 0.18 and 0.21 parts per million, respectively, Fineran said.
Fineran’s wife is now living in Louisiana while Fineran lives in a FEMA trailer in Bay St. Louis.
Tests were done in trailers in November 2005 at a staging lot in Kiln, Fineran said. The tests, conducted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, showed not only above-normal levels in the trailers, but the background level around the staging area was also elevated, Fineran said.
“They knew people were suffering,” Fineran said.
On December 14, 2005, a daily report of the meetings made by Fineran stated an official with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found formaldehyde in FEMA trailers at a Kiln staging area. The data was provided to Bechtel, the contractor responsible for transporting and setup of trailers. Fineran said both Sid Melton, now chief of operations in Mississippi, and Michael Andrews, chief of mobile home operations in Mississippi, received the OSHA report in December 2005.
According to FEMA, a total of 47 trailers – 17 in Mississippi – have been swapped. Fineran said this number is low because FEMA would only replace a trailer after venting and the applicant specifically mentioned formaldehyde. Used trailers were cleaned with an agent that masks the smell of formaldehyde, Fineran said.
An e-mail sent by Andrews to Fineran in November directed Fineran to handle a Kiln resident’s complaint about formaldehyde in his trailer making his eyes burn and giving him breathing troubles by doing “our standard nose test and educate the app on how to ventilate the unit for 24 hours, then follow up with app to see if that helps.” Andrews said the only alternative was to “swap the unit.”
Fineran replied, stating he found the method to be unscientific and inconsistent with OSHA occupational standards.

The National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, part of the Centers for Disease Control, has a eight-hour workplace acceptable exposure level of 0.016 parts per million. NIOSH recommends employees exposed to higher levels should wear a respirator.
The Environmental Protection Agency and OSHA standards for formaldehyde levels of 0.1 parts per million to cause “severe health effects” and the NIOSH deems this level as the maximum exposure level for a 15-minute period. OSHA regulations state 0.75 parts per million as permissible for an eight-hour time weighted average.
One FEMA trailer resident had his or her trailer tested in August 2006 by a private company. Eight months later, a FEMA housing representative noted the company’s report indicated that formaldehyde levels were “above livable (sic) standards.” The FEMA official noted that after five minutes, “my eyes started to burn and a headache soon followed.” Results from the 39 hour test showed levels of 0.18 parts per million, which the report states is “above the recommended limit.”
In another case in April 2006, a pregnant mother had her trailer tested out of concern for her young daughter and unborn child. Five tests completed in the trailer yielded results between 0.96-2.4 parts per million. Dr. Michael S. Bonner, who analyzed the results, said in the report, “These data show that both the OSHA and NIOSH limits were exceeded.”
A series of 31 tests done by the Sierra Club in April 2006 in Mississippi showed 29 trailers had readings over the EPA/OSHA limit. In tests done in June-July 2006, 45 of 52 trailers, or 87 percent, were at or above the recommended level. Levels in the second test were recorded as high as 0.34 parts per million.
OSHA tests conducted at FEMA trailer staging lots over the course of two months from October-December 2005 in Kiln, Pass Christian and Purvis repeatedly resulted in elevated formaldehyde levels, even as high as 5 ppm. Two types of tests were conducted – 15 minute short-term exposure and four-hour tests. Both methods resulted in levels over OSHA permissible exposure limits.
High formaldehyde levels have been connected to at least two deaths and possibly more. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, requested documents relating to formaldehyde from FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison three times beginning in August 2006.
Documents received by the committee cites the death of a Texas infant in August 2006. A FEMA representative who responded to the trailer after the death said the smell of formaldehyde made her nose burn. The committee did not find evidence of any tests being conducted in this instance and found that only one test was done on an occupied unit of a pregnant woman and infant in April 2006, which showed formaldehyde levels 75 times higher than NIOSH workplace recommendations.
The House committee’s memo released July 19 in reference to the documents reviewed by the committee said, “The agency received multiple warnings about dangerous levels of formaldehyde in FEMA trailers, but refused to conduct testing of occupied trailers because testing ‘would imply FEMA’s ownership of the issue.’”
The memo released by the committee also details from June 2006, when a man from St. Tammany Parish died from a “sensitivity of formaldehyde.” Lawyers from FEMA headquarters intervened, saying, “to be moving forward with plans and consulting with other agencies prior to vetting this internally could seriously undermine the Agency’s position. . .and that is not acceptable.”
Fineran also said the death of 10-day-old Diamondhead infant, whom he said was born early and underweight, may also be related to formaldehyde. The family also had a young daughter and was living in a FEMA trailer, Fineran said.
Hancock County Coroner Norma Stiglet said the death was cause by sudden infant death syndrome, which the National SIDS/Infant Death Resource Center says can be caused by exposure to formaldehyde during and after pregnancy. FEMA’s formaldehyde literature distributed to residents states tobacco smoke contains formaldehyde and urges residents not to smoke inside their trailer.
James McIntyre, chief of FEMA headquarters media relations in Washington, D.C. said FEMA through the CDC is conducting tests on trailers and a plan is currently being developed for testing the trailers. McIntyre said the trailers were also designed to be a temporary housing solution.
“They’re not designed for (long-term use). We all know this,” McIntyre said.
McIntyre also said selected documents were used by Waxman’s committee, not giving the media “the whole story.” McIntyre responded to Fineran’s accusations by e-mail, saying, “As soon as FEMA headquarters was made aware of the situation, FEMA began acting accordingly.”
Fineran said the issues and the way FEMA has dealt with them will be more difficult to recover from than the hurricane. Fineran calls the multiple mistakes made by the agency “Hurricane FEMA.”
“To me, the effect of what FEMA has done is taking longer than recovery from the storm,” Fineran said