Subcommittee Investigation on Toxic Trailers

Executive Summary

Created in 1980 by Congress, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), based in Atlanta, Georgia, is a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  As part of its mandate to protect the public from harmful environmental chemicals the agency performs “public health assessments of waste sites, health consultations concerning specific hazardous substances, health surveillance and registries, response to emergency releases of hazardous substances, applied research in support of public health assessments, information development and dissemination, and education and training concerning hazardous substances.”[1]

The mission of ATSDR, a sister agency of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “is to serve the public by using the best science, taking responsive public health actions, and providing trusted health information to prevent harmful exposures and disease related to toxic substances.”[2]  Unfortunately, the agency failed to meet any of those objectives when it produced a “health consultation” on formaldehyde levels in travel trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in February 2007.[3]  In almost every respect ATSDR failed to fulfill its mission to protect the public from exposure to formaldehyde at levels known to cause negative health effects.  The agency’s incomplete and inadequate handling of their public health assessment, the failure to quickly and effectively correct their scientific mistakes and their reluctance to take appropriate corrective actions was all marked by notable inattention and inaction on the part of ATSDR’s senior leadership.  As a result, tens of thousands of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita families living in trailers with elevated levels of formaldehyde were kept in harm’s way for at least one year longer than necessary.   

ATSDR failed to translate its scientific findings and facts into appropriate public health actions to properly inform and warn FEMA and the tens of thousands of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors living in FEMA-provided trailers and mobile homes of the potential health risks they faced from exposure to formaldehyde.  Instead, ATSDR’s reaction was marred by scientific flaws, ineffective leadership, a sluggish response to inform trailer residents of the potential risks they faced, and a lack of urgency to actually remove them from harm’s way.  Most disturbingly, there was a concerted and continuing effort by the agency’s leadership to both mask their own involvement in the formaldehyde study, and to push the blame for their fumbling of this critical public health issue down the line to others.

The health consultation itself, conducted at the request of FEMA’s Office of General Counsel because of expected litigation concerns, was scientifically flawed and omitted critical health information.  The stated objectives of the environmental sampling used to develop the consultation was to establish “general baseline concentrations of formaldehyde” in 96 new unused unoccupied trailers in order to evaluate the effectiveness of two types of ventilation methods used to help reduce the level of formaldehyde below levels of health concern.  Yet, the ATSDR health consultation used an inappropriate “level of concern” of 0.3 parts per million (ppm), ten times higher than ATSDR’s own Minimal Risk Level (MRL) of up to one year of exposure (0.03 ppm), and three times higher than the level of exposure widely accepted by other federal agencies to cause potential ill-health effects (0.1 ppm).[4]  The consultation also failed to address potential long-term health effects of formaldehyde exposure, including cancer risk, and neglected to mention the fact that formaldehyde is described as a “probable” or “known” carcinogen by U.S. government agencies and international health organizations.[5]  

Not surprisingly, the flawed report was used to provide an illusion of safety.  Rather than clearly warning occupants of the health effects that could result from exposure to elevated levels of formaldehyde, the ATSDR report determined that opening windows and vents would adequately reduce formaldehyde concentrations below the level of concern.  ATSDR tried to condition its conclusion, cautioning that it was “not intended to establish FEMA’s future policy concerning temporary housing units” because its conclusions could only be applied to the 96 trailers tested and not other FEMA trailers.  But FEMA did, in fact, use the report to justify its claim that its trailers posed no health threat and to justify its policy of keeping tens of thousands of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita victims in FEMA-provided travel trailers.  In addition, because the report was requested as part of ongoing litigation, FEMA asked ATSDR to keep the report “confidential.”  As a result, unlike standard practice, ATSDR did not post the report on its web-site for nearly six months and once ATSDR’s leadership learned of its substantive flaws and scientific omissions, it took the agency a full eight months to issue a “revised” health consultation.

[2]  Statement of Mission, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), available here:

 www.atsdr.cdc.gov/mission.html

[3]  “Health Consultation: Formaldehyde Sampling at FEMA Temporary Housing Units, Baton Rouge, Louisiana,” Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, February 1, 2007. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/fema_housing_formaldehyde/formaldehyde_report_0507.pdf

[4]  See the following references: “OSHA Formaldehyde – Fact Sheet,” U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 2002, www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/formaldehyde-factsheet.pdf;  “Indoor Air Quality (IAQ): Basic Information – Formaldehyde,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), www.epa.gov/iaq/formalde.html;  “An Update On Formaldehyde: 1997 Revision,” CPSC Document #725, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/725.html.

[5]  In 2004 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified formaldehyde as “carcinogenic to humans.”  See “IARC Classifies Formaldehyde As Carcinogenic To Humans,” International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, Press Release, No. 153, June 15, 2004, www.iarc.fr/ENG/Press_Releases/archives/pr153a.html; The EPA considers formaldehyde a “probable human carcinogen,” “Formaldehyde – Hazard Summary,” Environmental Protection Agency, Created in April 1992; Revised in January 2000, www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/formalde.html; The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that formaldehyde is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen,” “Report on Carcinogens, Eleventh Edition,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program, http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/eleventh/profiles/s089form.pdf.