Aspies For Freedom

Reservations to receive FEMA trailers
By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press WriterFri Jun 22, 3:55 PM ET
American Indian tribes throughout the country will receive 2,000 unused trailers that were intended for but never given to Hurricane Katrina victims.
Thousands of trailers have been idling in Arkansas and Texas, prompting criticism about government waste. They originally were purchased to house people displaced by the hurricane, but FEMA officials said regulations against placing the homes in flood plains prevented their use on the Gulf Coast.
Last year, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., urged the agency to donate the trailers to American Indian country, but the agency said federal law dictated the trailers must be used for disaster victims. In September, Johnson pushed through legislation allowing FEMA to sell or donate the trailers.
Nine months later, the trailers will finally be distributed, Johnson said in a statement issued by his office Friday.
"I saw pictures of tens of thousands of empty mobile homes sitting unused in Hope, Ark., while South Dakota's Indian tribes were struggling through a tough winter with inadequate housing," Johnson said in the statement. "There is still much that needs to be done to improve Indian housing, but this is a good step toward addressing this serious problem."
Indian housing has been a problem for decades. According to a 2003 survey, approximately 90,000 Indian families are homeless or "under-housed."
Johnson is out of the Senate recovering from a December brain hemorrhage, but he has been working from home on the issue, said spokeswoman Julianne Fisher.

Environmentalists: Tests Show High Levels of Formaldehyde Found in FEMA Trailers
The Associated Press
Thursday 18 May 2006
Gulfport, Mississippi - An environmental group says thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims in Mississippi and Louisiana may be living in unsafe conditions after tests it conducted showed dangerous levels of formaldehyde in some government trailers.
The Sierra Club on Wednesday asked for a congressional hearing after it claimed that 30 out of 32 Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers it tested had levels of formaldehyde that were unsafe.
"We started doing this testing because people were getting sick, having nosebleeds and having constant coughs," said Mississippi Sierra Club spokeswoman Becky Gillette. "The government is making people sick. They are putting people back in harm's way."
Gillette said the Sierra Club inserted vapor monitors in 50 trailers, though it said it had only gotten results back from a Florida lab on 32 of the tests. Formaldehyde concentrations were reported within a range of 0.06 to 0.34 parts per million in the air.
Formaldehyde is a widely used industrial chemical. The colorless, pungent gas can irritate eyes, nose and throat, and cause difficulty breathing and nausea at levels above .1 part per million in the air, officials say.
It is also known to cause cancer in the upper throat, the International Agency for Research on Cancer said.
"It is important that we don't discount these symptoms," said Mary DeVany, a certified industrial hygienist. "Almost all of the concentrations that we measured were 10 to 100 times higher than the worst smog levels in Los Angeles."
DeVany recommended that people living in the trailers increase ventilation inside by running fans, keeping windows open and controlling humidity levels.
"If you can smell it, you are being overexposed," DeVany said.
The 2005 hurricane season marked the largest deployment of temporary housing in FEMA's history, including some 30,000 trailers in Mississippi alone.
"FEMA is steadfastly committed to serving disaster victims and continuing to help Gulf states communities get back on their feet," agency spokesman Aaron Walker wrote in an e-mail to The Sun Herald. "FEMA and industry experts are monitoring the small number of cases where odors of formaldehyde have been reported, and we are confident that there is no ongoing risk."
" 'The odor may result from several sources, including materials used in the construction of certain trailers and vapors from items like new linens and burning cigarettes. By fully opening windows and using air conditioning or exhaust fans, residents can ensure proper air ventilation in their homes," Walker said.
Sierra Club spokesman Chris Smith said people living in FEMA trailers and suffering from the effects of formaldehyde, "have a right to know what is happening to them."
"We have thousands of people living in FEMA trailers. Some people just endure because they have no choice," Smith said.

Blankets given to the Indians diseased with Small Pox
During Pontiac's uprising in 1763, the Indians besieged Fort Pitt. They burned nearby houses, forcing the inhabitants to take refuge in the well-protected fort. The British officer in charge, Captain Simeon Ecuyer, reported to Colonel Henry Bouquet in Philadelphia that he feared the crowded conditions would result in disease. Smallpox had already broken out. On June 24, 1763, William Trent, a local trader, recorded in his journal that two Indian chiefs had visited the fort, urging the British to abandon the fight, but the British refused. Instead, when the Indians were ready to leave, Trent wrote: "Out of our regard for them, we gave them two Blankets and an Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital. I hope it will have the desired effect."

It is not known who conceived the plan, but there's no doubt it met with the approval of the British military in America and may have been common practice. Sir Jeffery Amherst, commander of British forces in North America, wrote July 7, 1763, probably unaware of the events at Fort Pitt: "Could it not be contrived to Send the Small Pox among those Disaffected Tribes of Indians? We must, on this occasion, Use Every Stratagem in our power to Reduce them." He ordered the extirpation of the Indians and said no prisoners should be taken. About a week later, he wrote to Bouquet: "You will Do well to try to Innoculate the Indians by means of Blanketts as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race."

Though a connection cannot be proven, a smallpox epidemic erupted in the Ohio Valley that may have been the result of the distribution of the infected articles at Fort Pitt. Whatever its origins, the outbreak devastated the Indians.

Formaldehyde in trailers? The only thing I can think of is melamine formaldehyde, which is often used a polymer laminate on surfaces because of heat and flame retardant properties. To my knowledge this is not dangerous because the level airborne is minimal. It seems these trailers were using composite plywood flooring with much higher levels.