Around Washington DC right now there are some politicians floating the idea of sending all those left over FEMA trailers to Haiti for the devastated homeless Haitian families to live in. That would be disasterous.
As US Rep. Bennie Thompason (D-Miss) correctly pointed out [here at Homeland Security Insight website: http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/11845/128/] the formaldehyde levels in those trailers is "unhealthy" to put it mildly and foisting them on anyone else would be stupid and politically dangerous.
The US is generously helping out in every way possible right now. The last thing the US needs is for the health effects those unsold trailers pose to arise from the rubble of Haiti several years from now.
"However, given the potential for adverse health affects when used as more than short-term shelter, I would be gravely concerned about distributing these units to the people of Haiti for use as housing. This country's immediate response to help in this humanitarian crisis should not be blemished by later concerns over adverse health consequences precipitated by our efforts," Thompson warned in the HSToday article online.
While Thompson and others have asked FEMA to stop auctioning off the unhealthy and dangerous trailers, FEMA has not done so yet, even those both FEMA and the Center for Disease Control released a study completed in February 2008 that declared the units to contain unhealthy levels of formaldehyde.
Those trailers shouldn't even be given away. They look good, sure, and they might even make you feel comfortable for the time being. But, like cigarettes, the harm comes in the long term that they don't tell you about.
As US Rep. Bennie Thompason (D-Miss) correctly pointed out [here at Homeland Security Insight website: http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/11845/128/] the formaldehyde levels in those trailers is "unhealthy" to put it mildly and foisting them on anyone else would be stupid and politically dangerous.
The US is generously helping out in every way possible right now. The last thing the US needs is for the health effects those unsold trailers pose to arise from the rubble of Haiti several years from now.
"However, given the potential for adverse health affects when used as more than short-term shelter, I would be gravely concerned about distributing these units to the people of Haiti for use as housing. This country's immediate response to help in this humanitarian crisis should not be blemished by later concerns over adverse health consequences precipitated by our efforts," Thompson warned in the HSToday article online.
While Thompson and others have asked FEMA to stop auctioning off the unhealthy and dangerous trailers, FEMA has not done so yet, even those both FEMA and the Center for Disease Control released a study completed in February 2008 that declared the units to contain unhealthy levels of formaldehyde.
Those trailers shouldn't even be given away. They look good, sure, and they might even make you feel comfortable for the time being. But, like cigarettes, the harm comes in the long term that they don't tell you about.
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