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
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