EPA plans to take public comments on formaldehyde rulemaking

Facing South has reported extensively on the dangerous formaldehyde-contaminated trailers provided to families displaced by Hurricane Katrina by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Back in early 2006, independent tests conducted by the Sierra Club revealed dangerously high levels of formaldehyde in FEMA trailers, but FEMA denied this problem for two years before confirming high levels and moving people out of the trailers.

The concern around FEMA's toxic trailers has grown beyond the Gulf Coast. Becky Gillette, director of the Sierra Club's formaldehyde campaign, was first to sound the alarm publicly about high levels of the cancer-causing chemical in the Katrina trailers. Writing Wednesday in a letter to the Raleigh News & Observer, Gillette points out that the tragedy of Katrina toxic trailers exposed a widespread problem in other RVs, mobile homes and modular buildings like temporary classrooms.

Now the Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing whether more regulation is needed, and this Thursday the EPA will be taking public comments on formaldehyde rulemaking. Writing in the News & Observer, Gillette calls on Gulf Coast advocates to ask the EPA about the Katrina toxic trailers:

The EPA has refused to hold a meeting on the Gulf Coast where 141,000 families were housed in FEMA trailers. Please consider speaking for them by attending the meeting or by e-mailing comments to Wheeler.cindy@epa.gov. All comments must be identified by docket identification number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2008-0627.

The meeting is scheduled for Jan. 8 from 1 to 5 p.m. at EPA, Main Campus Auditorium (C111B/C), 109 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.