By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Associated Press writer
Sep 14, 2009
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — For the first time since Hurricane Katrina left tens of thousands of families living in government-issued trailers, a federal jury heard allegations Monday that the shelters exposed Gulf Coast storm victims to hazardous formaldehyde fumes.
A New Orleans woman suing trailer maker Gulf Stream Coach Inc. and government contractor Fluor Enterprises Inc. claims her son’s asthma was aggravated by elevated levels of formaldehyde in their trailer provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Gulf Stream’s own tests found elevated levels of formaldehyde in its trailers in early 2006, but the company failed to warn plaintiffs Alana Alexander and her son, Christopher Cooper, about the potential risks, said plaintiffs’ attorney Tony Buzbee.
“What you don’t know can hurt you, and this case proves that 100 times over,” Buzbee said in his opening statements Monday.
Buzbee and company lawyers urged jurors to consider different standards for what could be safe levels of formaldehyde, a chemical commonly found in construction materials that can cause breathing problems and is classified as a carcinogen.
Buzbee said Alexander and Cooper were exposed to formaldehyde levels that were multiple times higher than those determined to be safe by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Gulf Stream attorney Andrew Weinstock said formaldehyde levels in the plaintiffs’ trailer were many times lower than standards set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The federal government isn’t a defendant in this first “bellwether” trial, although it has been sued in hundreds of other cases over formaldehyde exposure in FEMA trailers.
U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ruled last month that a two-year statute of limitations bars Cooper’s claims against the government. Plaintiffs’ lawyers plan to appeal that ruling.
Government tests on hundreds of trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi found formaldehyde levels that were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes. FEMA downplayed formaldehyde risks for months before those test results were announced in February 2008.
“I believe this will be the most important case that will be tried in Louisiana this year,” Buzbee said.
Alexander and Cooper, now 12 years old, moved into the trailer in May 2006 after Katrina damaged their home in eastern New Orleans. They lived in the unit for 19 months, moving out shortly after Alexander learned of formaldehyde concerns.
Erika Alexander, Cooper’s 15-year-old sister, testified that her eyes and nose burned and she started getting nosebleeds when they moved into the trailer. She said her mother “didn’t know what was the smell or what was going on.”
Plaintiffs’ lawyers accuse Indian-based Gulf Stream and other trailer makers of using shoddy building materials and methods in a rush to meet FEMA’s unprecedented demand for temporary housing after the 2005 hurricanes.
But the trailer occupied by Alexander and Cooper was produced in 2004.
Weinstock said FEMA has been purchasing trailers from Gulf Stream since 1992 and didn’t document a formaldehyde complaint about one of its units until 2006.
Weinstock, who said Cooper’s asthma was first diagnosed when he was 3, denied that the boy’s condition worsened after he moved into the trailer. Alexander took her son off a steroid treatment for asthma during a two-year period before Katrina, he added.
Weinstock also said Alexander didn’t mention her formaldehyde concerns to one of Cooper’s doctors until April 2009, after they had been picked to be the first trial’s plaintiffs.
Fluor Enterprises had a contract to install FEMA trailers. Charles Penot, a lawyer for Fluor, said the company hired expert subcontractors to haul and install the units.
See also –
new-report-children-from-fema-trailers-battle-serious-health-problems
the-high-cost-of-femas-learning-curve
government-selling-toxic-trailers-to-public-as-scrap
Note – Information on Riverstone Residential knowingly exposing tenants to extreme amounts of mold toxins at Toxic Mold Infested Jefferson Lakes Apartments in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. katy
Toxic Mold Infested Jefferson Lakes Apartments managed by Riverstone Residential
Riverstone Residential Litigation
Katy's Exposure 
Talk about adding insult to injury. It is still a bit hard to fathom that in our beautiful country so many people were so heinously neglected in their time of need.
May All Beings Be Happy.