A sickening report

Thursday, April 3, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

A federal scientist told a House panel this week that his superiors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ignored his repeated warnings that thousands of Gulf Coast hurricane victims risked severe health problems from exposure to formaldehyde in trailers the government had issued to them as emergency housing.

The Associated Press reports that Christopher De Rosa, one of the government’s top toxicologists, told the House Science and Technology Subcommittee his bosses told him to avoid sending any e-mails about the issue because “they might be misinterpreted.”

De Rosa also said that rather than taking his warnings seriously, officials in the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry removed him from his job last fall.

Formaldehyde is a preservative used in building materials that can cause nosebleeds and breathing difficulties. It also is considered a possible cause of cancer and, as a result, De Rosa said, it “is a matter of U.S. federal government science policy that there is no ‘safe level’ of exposure,” AP reports.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency placed about 143,000 families in the trailers in the aftermath of the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes. About 35,000 families still live in them.

FEMA officials insisted that the trailers were safe after complaints of illnesses surfaced in 2006. In February 2007 the CDC issued a report that said the formaldehyde would pose minimal risks as long as residents kept the windows open and the air conditioners running.

All the while, De Rosa was saying the trailers weren’t safe. Finally, in February, the CDC released a preliminary study that showed high formaldehyde levels in the trailers. CDC officials told FEMA to move people out of the trailers quickly.

Such action should have been taken two years ago. But the CDC, which is charged with protecting the public’s health, failed miserably not only by allowing people to live in these potentially poisonous homes, but also by working to hide the fact that health risks existed.