How Did Formaldehyde Affect Children?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after admitting that it sat on data showing a health risk from formaldehyde in emergency housing given to Hurricane Katrina victims, now has promised a five-year study into how the toxic gas affected children.

In testimony before Congress Tuesday, Christopher De Rosa, the former top toxicologist for the CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said the respiratory illnesses reported by families living in the so-called toxic trailers were a "harbinger of a pending public health catastrophe," according to the Times Picayune.

Some 30,000 people remain in toxic trailers, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is moving about 1,000 a month to new housing. FEMA and the CDC have admitted they put people at risk by failing to identify and report health risks associated with formaldehyde.

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