Greg Gerber posted on November 26, 2008 11:26
NEW YORK -- A study of children who lived in travel trailers following Hurricane Katrina has revealed that many of them are still suffering from health problems.
According to an article in USA Today, the 261 children in the study lived in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at Renaissance Village in Baton Rouge until it closed this past summer. Many of them are suffering from problems that could be linked to the toxic FEMA trailers’ formaldehyde contamination, but other are indicative of the instability these kids have had to deal with, the report said.
This new study, which was released by the New York-based Children’s Health Fund, did find that many of the children suffered from symptoms that could be related to formaldehyde exposure. According to USA Today, 42 percent of children were diagnosed with allergic rhinitis, known as hay fever, and/or upper respiratory infection. Around 24 percent had a cluster of upper respiratory, allergic and skin ailments, the report said.
But those weren’t the only health problems faced by these children. Around 41 percent of children younger than 4 were diagnosed with iron-deficiency anemia. According to USA Today, the researchers considered that number to be shockingly high. In fact, it is double the rate seen among children in New York City homeless shelters, the report said.
The study also found that 55 percent of elementary-school-aged children had a behavior or learning problem. Such problems are symptoms of a lack of stability that has plagued these families since the hurricane, the report said.
Irwin Redlener, president of the Children’s Health Fund, told Newsweek that he was extremely alarmed by the study’s findings. According to Redlener, the children in the study were “the sickest I have ever seen in the U.S.”
SOURCE: News Inferno