Fema Formaldehyde Case Study The University Of West Florida

FEMA Formaldehyde Case Study Ashley Farrow The University of West Florida Dr. William Bullock December 1, 2016 Abstract In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit The Gulf of Mexico. As a result of the storm thousands were killed and millions of people had to evacuate. After the storm, the Federal Emergency Agency FEMA obtained temporary mobile living quarters for the displaced victims. This is known as the largest displacement in US history. They gathered over 140,000 mobile homes and trailers for victims and their families. In order for this to be done, the government had to provide 1.6 billion dollars to set the trailers for them to have somewhere to live. When the victims of the storm began lodging the homes, the grumbles began about their health. As of a result of these complaints, they did some research and discovered that the formaldehyde levels in the FEMA trailers were above the levels that considered to be safe. Introduction The Center of Disease requested to have samples that have been collected in the trailers of the victims of hurricane Katrina and Rita to be analyzed for formaldehyde. The drive for this study is to assess and determine the prospective exposures to formaldehyde and establish the occupants’ possible exposure from the tainted gassing of unrestricted formaldehyde from the resources of construction. The CDC asked that they randomly selected forty-two Cavalier trailers for air sampling. As of result of collecting one-hour samples,