Toxic Trailers Hearing

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal scientist says his bosses ignored
pleas to alert Gulf Coast hurricane victims about formaldehyde
dangers in government-issued trailers.
Christopher De Rosa says his bosses also told him last year not
to write e-mails about his warnings of potentially widespread
health problems.
De Rosa is a top scientist at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention's toxic substances agency.
De Rosa's comments came today (Tuesday) at a House Science and
Technology subcommittee hearing on how the CDC and other agencies
handled complaints about potentially high levels of formaldehyde in
trailers issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to
victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Committee Democrats have accused FEMA of manipulating scientific
research to play down the dangers of high levels of formaldehyde
found in the trailers.
They say the CDC and its Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry went along with misleading residents.
In mid-2006, FEMA enlisted the CDC's help in analyzing the
results of air-quality tests on unoccupied trailers.
The CDC didn't start testing the air quality in occupied FEMA
trailers - or study the possible health effects of long-term
formaldehyde exposure - until late last year.