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Two and a half years after Hurricane Katrina 114,000 people are still living in cramped trailers - now it seems many have been exposed to a cancer-causing chemical

New Statesman - Toll of toxic trailers

But just when it seemed that post-Katrina New Orleans could not bear witness to greater suffering or government incompetence, Fema made a stunning announcement. Families living in many of these trailers have been exposed to toxic levels of a cancer-causing chemical. Formaldehyde is an industrial chemical that also occurs naturally. It is often found in materials used by the construction industry, with the effect that minute quantities, on average 16 parts per billion (ppb), are found in most homes. Indeed, the US Environmental Protection Agency allows no more than that proportion in the air of new buildings constructed for its own use. However, recent tests of 519 randomly selected trailers, carried out by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that some had levels as high as 590ppb. The study stated that such a concentration would make 5 per cent of adults sick and would cause breathing difficulties for a third of children and elderly people.

Mass actions representing tens of thousands of trailer occupants are now being launched against trailer manufacturers. Lawyers representing trailer residents say that Fema itself is likely to become a defendant in the near future. Donald Powell, Bush's federal co-ordinator for rebuilding the Gulf Coast, resigned last month, voicing hope that his time in office had helped to restore in Katrina victims at least a "fragile" trust in the federal government. Yet the reality for many victims of Hurricane Katrina is that, denied compensation for the destruction of their homes and threatened with eviction from New Orleans for a second time, many must struggle to hold the government accountable for the destruction of their health.