Toxic Trailers
Toxic Trailers is a great resource about the health effects of formaldehyde and other chemicals found in RVs used as emergency housing for hurricane Katrina victims. The trailer toxicity issue continues to get national TV coverage.
To the site’s credit, they also link to skeptical articles from the RV industry, quoting:
Air samples were taken daily on 96 FEMA trailers over a 14-day period. Two groups of trailers were sampled. Group A turned on air conditioners and left the bathroom vent open. Group B shut off the air conditioner, opened the windows and left the vents open. The goal was to see whether the concentration of formaldehyde could be altered below 0.3 parts per million (ppm), the point at which exposure may result in discomfort and irritation.
Group A, the users who shut the windows and recirculated air through the air conditioner, experienced irritating levels of formaldehyde gas 12 of the 14 days. But, Group B, which opened the windows as recommended, recorded less than 0.3 ppm after the fourth day.
Instead of defending the status quo, a smart manufacturer should come up with a “formaldehyde free” green product line in order to win market share during this blizzard of bad publicity.
