FEMA's Sale Of Katrina Trailers Sparks Criticism

[DeSwiss]

Source: Washington Post

FEMA's Sale Of Katrina Trailers Sparks Criticism

Washington Post
By Spencer S. Hsu
Saturday, March 13, 2010



In a giant auction, the federal government has agreed to sell for pennies on the dollar most of the 120,000 formaldehyde-tainted trailers it bought nearly five years ago for Hurricane Katrina victims. But the sale of the units, perhaps the most visible symbol of the government's bungled response to the hurricane, has triggered a new round of charges that it is endangering future buyers for years to come.

Consumer advocates and environmentalists are outraged that the government resold products it deemed unsafe to live in, saying warning stickers attached to the units will not keep people from misusing them. Besides formaldehyde, units might be plagued by mold, mildew and propane gas leaks, FEMA acknowledged.

"Proceed with caution, extreme caution, if you are tempted to respond to what appears to be an attractive offer for a travel trailer or manufactured home," Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel wrote in a consumer alert. He and others cautioned that the FEMA units could be resold many times, including over the Internet, and that unscrupulous sellers could remove warning labels or withhold information about the dangers.

This year, for example, building inspectors in Missouri discovered damaged FEMA units sold as scrap in a Fenton, Mo., mobile home park. The units were billed as housing even though their paperwork specified they were not to be occupied. "What if Toyota ordered a recall, then simply put a sticker on its vehicles saying they were unfit to drive before reselling them?" said Becky Gillette, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club in Mississippi, which helped uncover the formaldehyde problem. "There's a double standard for the government."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/12/AR2010031202213.html

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- It's a good thing that the government's trying to give people health care reform, eh???
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DeSwiss


http://www.atheisttoolbox.com/">The Atheist Toolbox





"Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us." ~ Henrik Tikkanen

[mbperrin]

1. No surprise here - give billions to corporatists and then make sure

that nobody else can recoup a dime from it, and especially make sure no real people benefit from it.

[DeSwiss]

2. And yet, if you or I.....

...were to knowingly and willfully sell merchandise to the general public that we know contains cancer-causing formaldehyde -- and which are also infused with mold, mildew spores -- and whose cooking/heating systems have propane gas leaks -- you know that we'd both be in jail.


- Heck of a job their Brownie - FEMA strikes again! Only this one can't be blamed on George W. Bush......

[alp227]

3. Foolish, Evasive Money Allocaters

They blow billions on some trashy trailers (don't switch the previous two words around or else), blow a couple hundred mill more just to store them, and then get just a bit more than storage cost in sales.
FEMA = Foolish, Evasive Money Allocaters
or: Funding Eternally Melted Away

[DeSwiss]

4. .....

"You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

[KoKo]

5. Wonderful Visuals..K&R!

[KoKo]

6. Hit Recommend...Unfortunately I hit the Wrong Button...K&R

[DeSwiss]

10. Thanks. And that's okay.

- Mistakes happen. My mom told that once......

[obxhead]

7. Another shovel ready job denied,

these trailers should be destroyed, not sold to the public.

[DeSwiss]

11. Seriously.

- How can a government, who is primarily charged with the task of protecting its citizens, also be the same one selling them poisoned trailers??? This IS NOT rocket science.....

[24601]

14. Somebody is going to have to ride back to town and get a shitload

of shovels....

[plantwomyn]

8. The fact

is that the materials that cause the formaldehyde gases in the trailers are sold every day in any lumberyard or Home Center. The government has done nothing to curtail the use or sale of these products. Every building and almost every piece of furniture we buy today is built with this stuff. There almost no way to get away from it. We would have to shut down almost all construction if these materials couldn't be sold. So if the building materials are legal, the sale of what is built from them has to be too. Sad but true.

[DeSwiss]

12. Agreed.

And the EPA has been dragging its feet on simple issues like http://www.epa.gov/iaq/formalde.html#Additional%20Resources">public notification of products containing and emitting harmful levels of formaldehyde gas since 2008. And that's three years after Katrina when everyone began to see the affects of these poisonous trailers.

But all of this is par for the course now. The http://www.epa.gov/endo/pubs/edspoverview/index.htm">Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, was created for the testing of chemicals through a series of experiments. http://www.epa.gov/endo/">This legislation was passed under Bill Clinton's administration in 1996! And in all this time all the FDA has been able to accomplish is http://discovermagazine.com/2009/feb/22-very-tough-rat-big-risk-human-health">arguing over what kind of mice to use.

In the mean time while they argue over rodents, 1000s more chemicals are added each year to the list to be tested -- and that we (the public who are paying these numbskulls) become exposed to. Likewise, more people are get cancers and other ailments they probably never would have had. And die.

- Yes, the system is totally fucked. And our government is in the hands of the Philistines -- big business and the corporations.

[24601]

15. Yep - mice are people too. Gotta look out for their rights just as

much as Johnny & Susie.

[unkachuck]

9. suddenly, I'm feeling rather capitalistic....

....I think I'll buy 3 or 4 of these excellent trailers, give them a lick of paint and then sell them to a few of my unsuspecting bumpas neighbors....mold, schmold, it's already growing on them and the formaldehyde will make their grits taste better....

[DeSwiss]

13. The American Way??? n/t