ELKHART -- Three local recreational vehicles makers are finding themselves targets of a congressional inquiry into formaldehyde levels in travel trailers.
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sent letters to Coachmen Industries Inc., Pilgrim International and Gulf Stream Coach, requesting all documents and communications regarding formaldehyde in travel trailers sold to the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005.
Also included is a series of pointed questions, asking each manufacturer how many units it made specifically for FEMA, why formaldehyde was used in the production of the units and why the maker sold to the federal agency travel trailers that have high levels of formaldehyde.
A letter also was sent to FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison.
The letters were sent Feb. 14, the same day officials from the Centers for Disease Control and FEMA announced that levels of formaldehyde in the units used by hurricane victims were high enough to cause health problems.
The committee is requesting the RV manufacturers respond by March 7.
U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairs the oversight committee and U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, R-Fort Wayne, is a member.
In a release, Coachmen President and Chief Executive Officer Rick Lavers stated, "Coachmen's first priority is and has always been the quality and safety of all our products. While Coachmen did not sell any trailer directly to FEMA, we know that a proportionately small number of our products were used by FEMA. Nevertheless, we will make every effort to cooperate fully with the committee's request for information on our products."
Formaldehyde surfaced as a problem less than a year after the units were sent to the Gulf and is now the subject of a handful of lawsuits filed in Louisiana courts.
"The issue is one that is being taken very seriously by the industry," said Jim Brotherson, partner and member of the RV focus practice at Baker & Daniels.
This congressional request is another step in the process as the issue plays out. Politics, public perception and science are not aligned in this matter, Brotherson said, and when the three do line up, the situation could change.
"I think this issue is going to go away," he said, "because the science that I've read does not support the concern and level of anxiety that is being expressed publicly and politically over this issue."
This is not the first time the oversight committee has studied formaldehyde in FEMA units. During July 2007, the congressional body had a hearing on FEMA's response to reports about hazardous levels of formaldehyde in the RVs being used for housing after the 2005 hurricanes. No RV manufacturer or RV industry representative appeared before the committee at that time.