Higher temps up FEMA trailer formaldehyde

ATLANTA (UPI) -- Two studies of Katrina trailers say U.S. manufacturers should consider using construction materials that emit lower levels of formaldehyde.

After Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency provided travel trailers, park models and mobile homes to Gulf Coast residents who had lost their homes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory measured air formaldehyde concentrations in whole trailers and emissions from specific parts of each trailer, such as walls, floors, ceilings, tables and cabinets of four vacant, never-used trailers provided by FEMA.

Formaldehyde emissions from the four whole trailers studied ranged from 173 to 266 micrograms per meter per hour in the morning to 257 to 347 micrograms per meter per hour in the afternoon due to increasing temperatures.

"Construction materials that emit high concentrations of formaldehyde, when part of a relatively small structure that has poor ventilation, have the potential to produce elevated levels of formaldehyde in the indoor air," Michael McGeehin of the CDC said in a statement.

A previous study found the average level of formaldehyde in all FEMA trailer units was about 77 parts per billion -- a range of 3 ppb to 590 ppb. It was determined health could be affected at the levels seen in many of the trailers, the CDC said.