How CDC bungled FEMA Formaldehyde
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 1.08
The biggest April Fools around today appear to be the Centers for Disease Control and FEMA; a new report describes how the formaldehyde issue got so bungled:
1) Toxicologist Chris De Rosa tells his superiors on Feb 27, 2007 that "the agency's reassuring findings about possible health problems related to formaldehyde exposure in trailers were flawed." Agency sends letter to FEMA on March 17.
2) FEMA official files the letter without sharing it.
3) FEMA continues to simply say "open the windows and air it out and it will be fine"
4) De Rosa continues sending emails "urging them to become more engaged, warning that there is no safe level of formaldehyde exposure. "
5) De Rosa receives an "unsatisfactory" job evaluation and is removed as Director of the Division of Toxicology after 16 years.
6) One year after the first emails, "the CDC found potentially sickening levels of formaldehyde in some trailers." ::New Orleans Times-Picayune
See also FEMA Formaldehyde Fiasco Festers; FEMA Ignored or Buried Formaldehyde Research and ::FEMA Trailers Optimizing Formaldehyde Exposure
What shocks me is that the ATSDR, an agency which I have worked with in the past, was designed to fight for environmental justice, would not stand up on the tallest mountain on this issue. The founder, who I communicated with while working on a case in Los Angeles, said this was the MAIN focus of this offshoot of the CDC. What could be more important an environmental justice issue then the Katrina trailers? ...But then.... FEMA was designed to protect the American people in times of disasters... and some of our elected and some members of our 'permanent government' are supposed to be our leaders to protect us and to not be ....thieves and liars...
Oh, we have so much to do to clean up this mess...
Citizens eventually learn that if you depend on the government for anything, you will end up disappointed. This is true regardless of what country you live in, and regardless of it is democratic, socialist or communist.
The person with the most ability and concern for you is you.
Next in line is your family, next your friends, and then your neighbors. Only rely on the government when that list runs out.
Why did so many people stay in these trailers if they were so bad?
One would assume any reasonable person would have found a job elsewhere, found a cheap apartment, and started "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps"