Children in Katrina trailers may face lifelong ailments

[sasquatch]

Source: Associated Press

BAY ST. LOUIS, MISS. - The anguish of Hurricane Katrina should have ended for Gina 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.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080527/ap_on_he_me/formaldehyde_in_trailers

---

Is this an ethnic cleansing of the poor from New Orleans and the gulf coast? Did they bring this on themselves indirectly by voting for Ronald Reagan like Republicans that allow corruption and nepotism in government because "government can't do any good, so it should only do bad"? I seriously don't know?

[Maddy McCall]

1. "Did they bring it on themselves...?"

I can't believe you said that.

[sasquatch]

3. Post the rest of what I said please

:eyes:

[KamaAina]

9. New Orleans itself is true Blue

it gave a higher percentage of its vote to Kerry than any other city except, oddly, Buffalo.

The rest of the region is more "purple"; the Mississippi Coast has a Dem in Congress, albeit a "Blue Dog" in Gene Taylor.

Oh, and even repukes don't "deserve" to have their kids growing up with asthma because Heckuvajob Brownie made them live in toxic trailers. :eyes:

edit: punctuation

[sasquatch]

12. What about the region surrounding it though?

Besides that's not all of what I asked, and didn't say they deserved it I simply asked if this is what they brought upon themselves indirectly. I know you might not be able to differentiate what I just said there, but I have faith in you.

[intheflow]

16. BSL, MS, where the woman cited in your OP lives,

is an art community, one of the most liberal towns on the Mississippi Coast. On the whole, the Coast votes more liberally than most of the rest of the state, and honestly, the government response to Katrina pushed a lot of people on the Coast to the left.

Regardless, no one deserves to live in those formaldehyde hell holes they call FEMA trailers, no matter their voting record. May your town never be destroyed by a disaster, forcing you to live in a FEMA trailer.

[Quantess]

21. If they made the poor choice of voting republican, then it's possible to argue they did.

Not a great argument, but I understand OP's point.

[Raven]

2. The Chinese have done better than Bush with their national disaster.

Pretty sad. He's skating along without accountability for Katrina's foul up, gas prices, the economy, a botched war...just wondering when enough is enough in this country.

[sasquatch]

4. Well this is what happens when a shocking amount of people vote for stupid reasons

[izquierdista]

6. For a guy they can "have a beer with"?

[valerief]

20. No, this is what happens after a coup. nt

[tridim]

5. Another "Mission Accomplished" moment for Bush

Gawd I hate Republicans.

[darue]

7. WTF - everyone responsible for this needs to be rounded up and moved into those damn trailers

shit for brains worthless asshole. round em up.

[Mojorabbit]

8. Why isnt the govt suing

the manufacturers of the trailers.

[EFerrari]

13. Becaused the moving party/ contact is getting kickbacks?

Someone has done some business here, clearly.

And, afaik, there is no "governement". There are a bunch of people in DC that do business while they pretend to represent us.

[sasquatch]

14. Probably because the Bush Administration is in bed with them

[Stuart G]

10. I guess we have many peope here in the U.S.A. that do not even..

want to take care of our own children. Selfish fools....

[KamaAina]

11. Oh please someone please create an image

of Heckuvajob Brownie and the whole crew dissolving into a pile of toxic goo.

As it happens, one of our very finest image creators is a New Orleanian...

[truedelphi]

23. one of our very finest image creators is a New Orleanian...

That is so true. Every other day some new graphic is created for us to delight in.

[NewEnglandGirl]

15. This is criminal

The CDC is claiming that tests are inconclusive regarding whether or not the formaldehyde is causing these children's ailments. Even if they didn't really know (and I think they do know that it's dangerous), shouldn't we err on the side of children's well being in health issues (or any issues?)

There are still 30,000 people in those FEMA trailers. I would like to see all of the government officials and CDC staff live in them. And formaldehyde is a carcinogen also. :grr:

[OwnedByFerrets]

17. This has got to be criminal to allow this to happen and still be

happening......are there law suits to get these poor people out of those hell holes of death?? FUCK, this pisses me off.

[rudy23]

18. New Orleanians are the most hated group in America, after Rove's hit job on them.

There is virtually zero political pressure to do jack squat about the Katrina recovery, or response.

I don't know if we, including myself, can wrap our heads around how extensively malicious our own government has been to American citizens in the wake of this disaster.

This whole thing is a sick practical joke carried out by twisted ideologues trying to usher in a new era of government neglect and disaster capitalism.

[Wizard777]

19. A) 2 and A) 4 Genocide is a very good possibility. But can you prove specific intent?

(a) Basic Offense.— Whoever, whether in time of peace or in time of war, in a circumstance described in subsection (d) and with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such—
(1) kills members of that group;
(2) causes serious bodily injury to members of that group;
(3) causes the permanent impairment of the mental faculties of members of the group through drugs, torture, or similar techniques;
(4) subjects the group to conditions of life that are intended to cause the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part;
(5) imposes measures intended to prevent births within the group; or
(6) transfers by force children of the group to another group;
or attempts to do so, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).
(b) Punishment for Basic Offense.— The punishment for an offense under subsection (a) is—
(1) in the case of an offense under subsection (a)(1), where death results, by death or imprisonment for life and a fine of not more than $1,000,000, or both; and
(2) a fine of not more than $1,000,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both, in any other case.
(c) Incitement Offense.— Whoever in a circumstance described in subsection (d) directly and publicly incites another to violate subsection (a) shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(d) Required Circumstance for Offenses.— The circumstance referred to in subsections (a) and (c) is that—
(1) the offense is committed within the United States; or
(2) the alleged offender is a national of the United States (as defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101)).
(e) Nonapplicability of Certain Limitations.— Notwithstanding section 3282 of this title, in the case of an offense under subsection (a)(1), an indictment may be found, or information instituted, at any time without limitation.

There is a five year Statute of limitation on those charges. Unless someone dies. There are statutes no statutes on A)1 Genocide.

[cbc5g]

22. Please move to a commune there are better choices n/t

[KT2000]

24. Everyone is at risk

Please read this article that was in Sunday's Washington Post. The regulation of toxic materials in building products is a joke. The increase of wood products, as in particle board, from China has shown dramatic increases in formaldehyde levels.
New home construction is using these materials too.

People will move into their new home, develop asthma, sinus infections, neurological problems and then go to the doctor for help. They are given surgeries for sinus problems, psychotropic drugs for memory and mood problems and eventually given up on. More and more people are being poisoned by their homes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/24/AR2008052401973.html

[txwhitedove]

25. Tsk, tsk. A question that should not be asked. People do not "deserve"

to be raped, beaten, robbed, tortured, harassed, thrown about by tornado's, burned by wildfires, or scared witless by a monster storm screaming through their town, peeling the houses apart piece by piece, then flooded out, then told by insurance companies they aren't covered for their total loss because it was "only" water, endure carpetbagger fly-by-night contractors who run with the money, a president who looks the other way, and so-called christian leaders actually saying God turned his head while it happened, and countless idiots who don't know a damn thing about the Gulf Coast saying "Well,they shouldn't have been living there".....

I joined DU because of ignorant remarks about Katrina and the coast. I was living in Bay St. Louis, a beautiful quiet safe little town on the water.