The controversy over formaldehyde in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailers is back, and this time it is featured on the front page of today s The New York Times. The FEMA trailers are being re-sold to temporarily house oil spill cleanup workers, but many workers are purchasing them as longer-term housing. The trailers are supposed to carry a warning that they are not intended to be used as housing units due to their formaldehyde levels, but many buyers are unaware of the new regulation.
However, as your humble scribe blogged last month, the levels of formaldehyde in the FEMA trailers are not enough to cause cancer or asthma, rendering these new regulations excessive and unnecessary.
ACSH s Jeff Stier reminisces about his elementary school science lab experience with formaldehyde when he dissected frogs. If kids can be exposed to high levels of formaldehyde in frog dissection labs, and adults can withstand more prolonged occupational levels, how is living in these trailers which have relatively low formaldehyde levels unsafe?