Children in Katrina trailers may face lifelong ailments

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Children in Katrina trailers may face lifelong ailments

The Associated Press*

By JOHN GONZALES

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i0obdVKtwUqMG6gEUqc6mnjat9hAD90U4I

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BAY ST. LOUIS, MISS. (AP) — The anguish of Hurricane Katrina should

have ended for Bouffanie and her daughter when they left their

FEMA trailer. But with each hospital visit and each labored breath

her child takes, the young mother fears it has just begun.

" It's just the sickness. I can't get rid of it. It just keeps coming

back, " said Bouffanie, 27, who was pregnant with her now 15-month-

old daughter, Lexi, while living in the trailer. " I'm just like, `Oh

God, I wish like this would stop.' If I had known it would get her

sick, I wouldn't have stayed in the trailer for so long. "

The girl, diagnosed with severe asthma, must inhale medicine from a

breathing device.

Doctors cannot conclusively link her asthma to the trailer. But they

fear she is among tens of thousands of youngsters who may face

lifelong health problems because the temporary housing supplied by

the Federal Emergency Management Agency contained formaldehyde fumes

up to five times the safe level.

The chemical, used in interior glue, was detected in many of the

143,000 trailers sent to the Gulf Coast in 2006. But a push to get

residents out of them, spearheaded by FEMA and the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, did not begin until this past

February.

Members of Congress and CDC insiders say the agencies' delay in

recognizing the danger is being compounded by studies that will be

virtually useless and the lack of a plan to treat children as they

grow.

" It's tragic that when people most need the protection, they are

actually going from one disaster to a health disaster that might be

considered worse, " said De , assistant director for

toxicology and risk assessment at the federal Agency for Toxic

Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the CDC. " Given the

longer-term implications of exposure that went on for a significant

period of time, people should be followed through time for possible

effects. "

Formaldehyde is classified as a probable carcinogen, or cancer-

causing substance, by the Environmental Protection Agency. There is

no way to measure formaldelhyde in the bloodstream. Respiratory

problems are an early sign of exposure.

Young children are at particular risk. Thousands who lived in

trailers will be in the prime of life in the 10 to 15 years doctors

believe it takes cancer to develop.

FEMA and CDC reports so far have drawn criticism.

A CDC study released May 8 examined records of 144 Mississippi

children, some of whom lived in trailers and others who did not. But

the study was confined to children who had at least one doctor's

visit for respiratory illness before Katrina. It was largely

inconclusive, finding children who went to doctors before the August

2005 storm were still visiting them two years after.

A bigger, five-year CDC study will include up to 5,000 children in

Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, and CDC officials said it

should begin next year. But members of Congress point to the decade

or longer it could take for cancer to develop and say a five-year

look is inadequate.

" Monitoring the health of a few thousand children over the course of

a few years is a step in the right direction, but we need

commitment, " said Rep. Bennie , D-Miss.

has introduced legislation to force FEMA and CDC to provide

health exams for trailer residents who believe formaldehyde made

them ill. The bill is similar to $108 million legislation for

workers who labored at the World Trade Center site.

Arch Carson, professor of occupational medicine at the University of

Texas Health Science Center in Houston, said preliminary exams alone

for trailer residents could cost more than the trade center bill.

But he said class-action lawsuits over the formaldehyde — at least

one has been filed — could be even more expensive, costing many

billions of dollars.

" It would be best for the government to get its act together now, "

Carson said.

More than 22,000 FEMA trailers and mobile homes are still being used

in Mississippi and Louisiana.

FEMA and the CDC say they will create a registry of those who stayed

in trailers for possible future study. But they admit that the task

of keeping track of everyone is made difficult by the rush to get

families into other housing.

The parents of McKenzie Whitney, a 1-year-old girl with wavy auburn

hair, are running low on money and options for caring for the sick

girl.

Born into a FEMA trailer, McKenzie was out of the dwelling in August

2007 after a 10-month stay. Her mother, Kacey Whitney, 22, a

housekeeper, and her father, Whitney, 30, a maintenance man,

juggle the pressures of post-hurricane life with tending to the

child.

" Sunday night when I was going to work, as I was walking up to the

front door, she just threw up. She had a fever. We went to the

hospital and they wound up keeping her overnight, " the girl's mother

said. " She's always had a cold, always. "

Like Lexi, McKenzie is treated with a nebulizer, a boxy breathing

machine that turns medication into mist. It is prescribed to

patients with moderate to severe symptoms, and requires children to

inhale for 20 minutes.

Dr. Shama Shakir, a Bay St. Louis pediatrician who treats Lexi and

Kacey at the Coastal Family Health Center, said that before the

storm she prescribed nebulizers about twice weekly. Lately, she is

doing so up to 12 times a week.

" You give them the most potent steroids, the most potent

antibiotics, and still they have the symptoms, " Shakir said. " I

worry about what will become of these children long-term. "

Deven Galloway, 27, lived in a FEMA trailer in Bay St. Louis for

seven months with 4-year-old son DeReion. The boy uses a nebulizer

for asthma.

" One day he was like, `I'm going to take more so I can go ahead and

be finished for a long time,' " said his mother. " I had to tell him

it didn't work that way. "