As you may know, the CDC testing done on the FEMA trailers came up with a geometric mean of only 77 ppb, lower than even the newly defined 100 ppb “Level of concern.”

Note that even these numbers were probably high in that no correction was made for the effects of cigarette smoke. Yes, there were a small number of trailers that did have levels higher than a few hundred ppb, but even those levels would only affect people who–frankly–were either already sick or highly sensitive.

The main problem with the CDC testing was that it was not done terribly well, and there is a significant possibility that some of the trailer dwellers were coached to make the results higher.

I would not put too much stock in the Salon story, especially since there there will be no successful suits against FEMA, unless the Supreme Court decides to go against the precedent of the Dalehite case, and I doubt that will happen.

As to the “sickest kids” remark, it may well be true, but the sad fact is that poor health does correlate with poverty, and his finding is not surprising. It is unlikely that formaldehyde in those low concentrations created the sick kids.