Children in Katrina trailers may face lifelong ailments »
Posted by: TechnologyExpert 3 months agoThe 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.
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jordan113 months ago
Fema knew there was a problem with people getting sick in those trailers back in 2006, but decided NOT to test them. Anyone fired? Nope. Any criminal charges? Nope. Are taxpayers still paying their salaries? Yep. Are taxpayers paying for their cushy health care? Yep. Anyone care? Apparently not.
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DropkickaLib3 months ago
Truth be told, the trailers are probably better than the housing projects in which many of them previously lived.
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injest3 months ago
Jordan, Did ya happen to look up WHAT interior glues their talking about?
Didn't think so.
Jordan have you ever heard of Plywood? How bout Partial board?
What are the odds most of us have exposure to Plywood and Partial board at home or work?
The chemical Formaldehyde is so common that it is in most plastic, wood, and paper manufacturing. It is literally a "catch all" chemical. And that is why it will be virtually impossible to blame anything on it.
I have worked in the plastic Ind. for years. In plastics, it is most common in acetyl's often just referred to as Delrin. Odds are if you have a keyboard in front of you now you have an acetyl plastic in front of you right now.
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injest3 months ago
When acetyl's gas off (meaning turns into Formaldehyde fumes) it is incredibly EASY to find, it has a VERY distinct odor. Most people will say it is TEARGAS (that's because it is TEAR GAS) In other words Jordan a dangerously high level of Formaldehyde would render the area uninhabitable not by order of the Government it would be by order of your nose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formaldehyde
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hyperbola3 months ago
Interesting to compare the reaction of the Bush administration with the reaction of the Chinese administration to their recent earthquake. Which government seems to have the interests of its people more at heart?
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DropkickaLib3 months ago
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hyperbola3 months ago
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saintetienne3 months ago
I got this one, too.
Once again, the U.S. government. And if you don't think so, why don't you move to Shanghai and enjoy the purported benefits you seem to think their government showers on its people? Believe me, hyperbullsh*t, you won't be missed.
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DropkickaLib3 months ago
The Chinese Government had to respond quickly or else it wouldn't be able to harvest and sell the organs of the dead.
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DropkickaLib3 months ago
Those who escaped from the decaying housing projects will have infinitely better lives.
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bubba23 months ago
But jordan11, wasn't all the poor response and the victims' problems caused at the LOCAL level? The Federal government has always been blameless if you listen to the neocons spin it.
It is horrible enough that those people lost everything except for their lives, yet they will continue to suffer for YEARS because of the incompetence of our brilliant Homeland Security department and FEMA operated by the Bush administration.
All those children who survived the hurricane and are now sick from the formaldehyde-contaminated trailers will suffer the rest of their lives - Katrina / Rita will never leave them.
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bubba23 months ago
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saintetienne3 months ago
No, getting out there and MAKING YOUR OWN LIVING, so you can afford YOUR OWN HOUSING and not rely on government... er, taxpayer-funded handouts is better than being poisoned by formaldehyde OR living in housing projects.
Some people can't seem to get this simple fact through their thick skulls and YOU, bubblehead2, seem to be their mole king.
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DropkickaLib3 months ago
Since many old housing projects certainly contain asbestos and are unbelievably crime-ridden, that may actually be true.
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HMMace3 months ago
Rumors that living in a "traier' is bad--Is just not true..
More scare tactics is all this is..Lived in them for many years while traveling this country..Lived in them after I settled down.. 80 years old now, and no effectes whatever.
you should not nelieve every thing yo hear--AND--only half of what you see..
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jordan113 months ago
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vor3 months ago
It is sad to think of all the high minded talk of helping these people after the storm. I remember Bush's speech from Jackson Square a week after the storm promising nearly unlimited help. Hard to believe 2 and 1/2 years later people are still living in these trailers (and they are!). Yet this is now a forgotten story outside of the immediate area. But you can be sure the view from Trent Lott's beachhouse is once again spectacular.
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injest3 months ago
"Well,Obama and a couple of other congess people called for investigations. But as bush boy has all his pals in the investigative branches, I don't expect anything will be done about it. The media doesn't care. The people in general don't care. Who does care?"
Jordan, winging it today?
$116 bbbbbbbbbbbbbillion. Spent, where has it gone?
BTW Jordan, congress controls the nations purse strings and are the ones responsible to follow up where the domestic money went. They can and have investigated (I didn't find a call from Obama to investigate.)
To that end I know Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has looked into it and found/identified 19 contracts worth $8.75 billion that experienced "significant overcharges, wasteful spending or mismanagement."
Many in Washington claim that state and local governments are to blame: The money's there, they say, but the locals just aren't using it.
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nikkibabe3 months ago
Has anybody in your country thought of prosecuting Bush for crimes against humanity in his own country?
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Dionys3 months ago
People think about it all the time. Hopefully the Hague will issue a warrant so that it's difficult for him to travel in the EU/et cetera.
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saintetienne3 months ago
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injest3 months ago
nikkibabe
"Has anybody in your country thought of prosecuting Bush for crimes against humanity in his own country?"
All the time nikkibabe but so far they don't get passed the laugh test, like this one.
It is not considered a crime against humanity to use plywood or particleboard in the construction of furniture.
BTW nikkibabe in your country is it illegal, a crime against humanity to use plywood or particleboard in the construction of furniture?
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saintetienne3 months ago
"BTW nikkibabe in your country is it illegal, a crime against humanity to use plywood or particleboard in the construction of furniture?"
Are you kidding? nikkibabe's country (Sweden) is the CAPITAL of cheap furniture, made out of particleboard and spit, then shipped to Ikea stores worldwide.
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saintetienne3 months ago
Could somebody tell me why - after nearly three years - people are STILL living in FEMA trailers?
Never mind. I'LL tell you why.
Because as long as the government continues to give handouts to people, they're going to sit there and take it, and show no motivation to get up and get anything on their own. There was a time that the people of this great nation used to take care of themselves. They were humiliated if they had to accept a handout and did everything in their power to see to it that they didn't have to. Every person not only did for themselves, but put a little extra aside in the event their family or neighbors fell on hard times - not that those family members or neighbors would even accept a handout. They were too proud and too productive to accept charity.
Nowadays, there are entire generations of welfare families, because it's there. Why work when the govt. is there to bail you out at every turn? Just whine the loudest and get the most.
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saintetienne3 months ago
CONT.
This is SHAMEFUL behavior. The people in these trailers should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to live in squalor for nearly 3 years - and put their children at health risks. Apparently one woman thought nothing of getting pregnant and bringing another child into the world, even as she was living in a trailer. IRRESPONSIBLE. Get out and get a job, you louts. And don't tell me they don't have a choice - - there are shelters, job-training centers, job-finding services, clinics, daycare centers.... all free of charge, paid for by tax dollars, that they could avail themselves of.
The blame is not to be put on the government.
The blame is not to be put on Hurricane Katrina.
The blame is not bo be put on the general public.
The blame falls squarely on these people who have done little to nothing for almost three years now, living off the government dole. Shame on THEM.
You get what you settle for.
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bubba23 months ago
Those people are still living in trailers because their insurance companies did not honor their policies, or they had no insurance. Also, where their homes were have probably NOT been cleared out (of all the debris) and/or they can't afford to rebuild or they can't get anyone to do the rebuilding, and/or they have no place else to go until they can get a job somewhere else, etc.
Your level of sympathy and compassion is amazingly UNDERWHELMING.
"There, but for the grace of God, go I ..."
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saintetienne3 months ago
bubblehead2:
WAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! WAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!
(sniff, sniff.....)
WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Just thought I'd let you know what you sound like. Don't you ever get tired of making lame excuses and feeling sorry for people who don't care about you OR themselves? Don't bother to answer. I don't care. Just wondering....
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crghss3 months ago
"they had no insurance"
Who's fault it that.
""There, but for the grace of God, go I ...""
Maybe you but no me.
I have friends that lost everything. They've rebuilt and are back at it. Look at the Vietnamese shrimp fisherman. They rebuilt there own town's and fishing fleet and are up and running. Waiting for no one. NO OUTSIDE HELP. Wonder why this story is so repressed?
When you raise people on a nanny state Katrina is what you get. These people couldn't think for themselves, help themselves, save themselves. WHY, because of people like bubba2 keep telling them. EVERYTHING is someone else's fault. EVERYTHING is someone else's responsibility.
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joeblowe3 months ago
While the retort by St. Etienne here MAY be a bit overly simplistic, I have to allow as how after 3 years I, too, am starting to wonder why anyone would STILL be living in those poisonous trailers. And, I'm still a little unclear how it is that the FEDERAL government is responsible for flooding in an area where construction permits are issued at the state and/or local level. Live in a home in a hurricane prone coastal area below sea level and you are BOUND to get flooded eventually. It's what you call HIGH RISK. Sort of like building a house in California on the side of a hill in mudslide territory. HIGH RISK and STUPID. It's a game for the wealthy who can afford the insurance or the loss. After 3 years of failing to get THEMSELVES out of those trailers, I no longer have what little sympathy I ever did have.
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joeblowe3 months ago
Well, although my sympathy IS limited (and by now, nonexistent) AT THE TIME - when there WAS a need to help out those who were horribly damaged by the storm - I too felt that there was a need for a "helping hand" if you will, and DID donate real cash money to one of the New Orleans efforts that I thought would actually DO something instead of steal it all. Now, seeing photos of a STILL totally ruined city, I conclude that either I was mistaken and the money WAS stolen, or the "residents" who are still hanging around there have taken all that money that was donated by so many people and organizations and spent it all on candy and toys (read "drugs and liquor") instead of cleaning up the mess. My sympathy has fled along with anyone who took themselves and their family to a better place.
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Charlson3 months ago
Why are they no investigations into the industry that produced these defective trailers with interior glue that gives off formaldehyde fumes five times the safe limit? And why aren't they being held accountable?
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saintetienne3 months ago
"Why are they no investigations into the industry that produced these defective trailers with interior glue that gives off formaldehyde fumes five times the safe limit? And why aren't they being held accountable?"
Because these trailers were designed for immediate, SHORT-TERM relief - i.e. 3 or 4 months - until their occupants got back on their feet and back into proper housing. They were NOT designed as abodes of permanent living, as many welfare freeloaders seem to think. Get a clue, Charlsdope.
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bubba23 months ago
The trailers ARE designed to LIVE in. Are they supposed to "desolve" or "fall apart" after 3-4 months because they are only supposed to be "temporary"?
Inane logic - the trailers are NOT tents. They are PERMANENT structures, and they ARE defective and the industry SHOULD be held accountable for poisoning THOUSANDS of people.
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simonsez3 months ago
I think the ninth ward was full of rental properties accumulated by investors over the last 80 years. They may have paid as little as $5000-$25,000 and rented these out to permanent welfare people and other low income families.
The investors collected the storm money (as they should have) for the lost properties, but they can't afford to rebuild at today's prices and expect to make a profit.
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