Newly released tests results show dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes in many of the trailers FEMA used to house hurricane victims in Louisiana and Mississippi. The CDC was requested to conduct air analysis inside the trailers last year by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Results of the testing should were disclosed now.

"This is such gross incompetence. I really have not in my 10 years seen anything like this on the domestic front," said U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., as quoted by the AP.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that formaldehyde fumes from hundreds of trailers and mobile homes were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes. They tested the air for formaldehyde fumes in 519 trailers and mobile homes between Dec. 21 and Jan. 23.

Jim Stark, director of the FEMA Transitional Recovery Office of New Orleans, said last that approximately 3,700 people had expressed fears that the health problems they have been experiencing are due to exposure to formaldehyde in their trailers. Questions over possible dangerous levels of formaldehyde had appeared as long as a year and a half ago.

Formaldehyde is a common preservative and embalming fluid, and a chemical used in the manufacture of the trailers. It can cause respiratory problems such as bronchitis and is known to cause cancer; formaldehyde has been classified as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Tens of thousands of people were displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and were provided with temporary housing by the government. Nearly 48,000 households continue to live in the trailers and mobile homes. Henry Falk, director of the CDC's Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention, said last year that standards do not exist at the moment indicating air quality in trailers.

Howard Frumkin, director of the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, said. In November, the FEMA suspended the sale of its used trailers to residents and said that these constructions would no longer be used in the case of future disasters.