Pressed wood released formaldehyde in trailers: CDC

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pressed wood products such as particle board are the main source of irritating formaldehyde fumes in trailers used to house disaster victims, according to a U.S. government report to be released on Wednesday.

Such temporary housing should be designed with better ventilation, the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests, and current health and safety standards may not be enough to protect people.

"Even though construction materials meet standards ... you have to be a little bit careful about how you use those construction materials. You could end up fostering high levels of formaldehyde," said CDC spokesman Glen Nowak in a telephone interview.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said 15,000 people displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita along the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005 are still living in such trailers.

FEMA spokesman James Kaplan said a few dozen mobile homes were being sent to people displaced by flooding in Iowa, but they had been tested for low formaldehyde levels.

The CDC contracted with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California to cut open several trailers and measure concentrations of formaldehyde and other irritating chemicals known as volatile organic compounds.

"We refer to it internally as the chain saw study," Nowak said. "We went beyond formaldehyde and looked at levels of other volatile organic compounds.

PLYWOOD CULPRIT