16
Dec
08

Formaldehyde In Temporary Housing Units - UPDATE

Update of a story we ran in early 2007;

Mike Tennant had http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/014209.html this post on the lewrockwell.com blog about this article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071901039_pf.html on high levels of formaldehyde in the mobile homes FEMA used to provide temporary housing to the victims of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Being an environmental health professional, I had to set the record straight, and so wrote him a note;
Hi Mike,
I am a Certified Industrial Hygienist, working for a laboratory that tests air samples for formaldehyde, among other substances. I cannot speak directly about any knowledge I may or may not have about air samples that my laboratory may or may not have tested. However, I can shed some light on this situation

The OSHA www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_242600.html Permissible Exposure Level (PEL) for formaldehyde is 0.75 parts per million (ppm) in air. Presumably, the limit referred to in the article is the NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limit (REL) of 0.016 ppm.

Seventy-five times that is 1.2 ppm. In my opinion, this number is probably less than half of the actual concentrations to which the residents were exposed, given the time elapsed since the trailers were put into use, and the political realities involved.

The OSHA PEL is based on acute symptoms of formaldehyde exposure, such as irritation. But in addition to being a sensitizer and a severe eye and respiratory irritant, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that there is www.iarc.fr/ENG/Press_Releases/archives/pr153a.html “sufficient evidence” that occupational exposure to formaldehyde causes nasopharyngial cancer.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), after moving into a new building complex in Research Triangle Park, found that high levels of formaldehyde and other chemicals coming from building materials made the offices uninhabitable. They subsequently revised their general building specifications, to the effect that the EPA will not accept (or pay for) any building where formaldehyde levels exceed the National Institute Of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Recommended Exposure Level (REL) of 0.016 ppm (20 micrograms per cubic meter). UPDATE: Recently, FEMA itself has adopted this standard too, for temporary housing units purchased by the agency for future disasters http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/04/11/fema_limits_formaldehyde_in_trailers/

The EPA has not, however, created a similar enforceable standard for non-EPA employees. Nor, apparently, is there any concern within the government over this serious hazard, as evinced by the fact that FEMA is as of this writing, selling the evacuated trailers to the unsuspecting public; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17509045/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702965.html

Given the fact that the very poorest of homebuyers is the likely market for these hastily-built, environmentally-challenged trailers, I think we have another illustration of exactly how well the federal government cares for the poor.

Most mobile homes, and indeed most new homes in general contain significant amounts of engineered wood products such as oriented strand board (OSB), which are various wood-waste products bound together with either a urea-formaldehyde http://www.pacia.org.au/_uploaditems/docs/3.urea_formaldehyde_resin.pdf or a http://gp.com/chemical/products.asp?RC=1&KW=&BS=68%7COriented%20Strand%20Board&DC=3%7CWood%20Adhesives phenol / formaldehyde resin.

Properly manufactured, mixed, and cured, the phenol-formaldehyde resin product (often designated as exterior-grade) product yields modest amounts of formaldehyde into living spaces where it is used in construction, and this amount usually tapers off over time.

However, the urea - formaldehyde resin products can off-gas significant amounts of formaldehyde under normal conditions. If the product isn’t manufactured properly, the amounts of formaldehyde that off-gas can be substantial. This behavior is exacerbated by high-temperature, high-humidity conditions, such as found in coastal Mississippi and the bayous of Louisiana.


1 Response to “Formaldehyde In Temporary Housing Units - UPDATE”


  1. 1 Becky Gillette Dec 17th, 2008 at 10:10 am

    Thanks very much for this posting! For the past three years I have worked with people across the country who are being poisoned by formaldehyde. The government has spent over $1 billion on FEMA temporary housing units,many of which contained unhealthy levels of formaldehyde. Much illness and early deaths have resulted.

    I wanted you to know that I sent your blog today to EPA, which is currently considering whether to regulate formaldehyde. This is the comment I sent in with your blog:

    FYI, I would like to submit the following blog as a comment. Please note that EPA requires low formaldehyde levels for its buildings. In addition to the sick building cited below that couldn’t be occupied by EPA because of high levels of formaldehyde and other indoor air pollutants, I know of a woman in California who got a worker’s compensation case settled in her favor for exposure to formaldehyde in an EPA building in Sacramento.

    Does the public deserve any less protection than EPA?

    Becky Gillette, formaldehyde campaign director, Sierra Club, 479-253-6963

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