Toxic Trailers: Did CDC Blacklist Whistle Blower?

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suppress information about the toxicity of trailers made available to house Hurricane Katrina victims? Did it retaliate against the scientist who spoke out about the danger?

Those are among the questions Congress has as it investigates the CDC over the toxic trailer episode that added toxic insult to injury after the botched FEMA response to Katrina, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The toxic trailer episode added yet another federal agency to the list that apparently failed the residents of New Orleans and the wider Gulf Coast.

The black eye is an unusual one for the CDC, which has been among the least politicized of the scientific agencies working on behalf of the American people. Unlike the Environmental Protection Agency, whose decisions are constantly assaulted by scientists, the CDC's decisions have often been left to the experts in Atlanta, where the CDC is headquartered.

But in the wake of the federal failings in response to Katrina, politics was paramount and may have trumped good sense and science. At least, that's what Congress is investigating as it strives to fill the watchdog role the Constitution designates for it, but which it has so often shirked in recent years.

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