Formaldehyde

Q. We own a new double-wide mobile home. It was manufactured using formaldehyde. The warning said to beware of the formaldehyde's effects for a short time. The odor is now mostly gone, but in the three closets it's overpowering. Please help. Adele and Irwin Berman Lake Ariel, Pa. A. Formaldehyde is used as a glue or bonding agent in particle board and plywood and gives off a gas. Mobile homes, which are built with a larger amount of plywood and particle board, are more tightly constructed than conventional houses.

The widely used preservative formaldehyde, and styrene, which is found in food containers and coffee cups, are among eight agents added to a list of known and suspected carcinogens by the National Institutes of Health. Formaldehyde, which has been linked to leukemia and a rare type of nasal cancer, is "known to be a human carcinogen," according to the congressionally mandated report published Friday on the health agency's website. Researchers categorized styrene as "reasonably anticipated" to be cancer-causing.

Members of Chester County's Office of Emergency Services are pushing for action from federal environmental officials over a January fire that destroyed a Mendenhall chemical company. "We don't want this matter dropped," said John MacNamara, assistant director of emergency services. "It's the first one in Chester County we've recommended for any action. " The fire Jan. 26 wiped out the Gold Crest Chemical Corp., which used formaldehyde in its manufacture of embalming fluid.

THE FEDERAL Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has always been hand-in-glove with disaster, but unfortunately, the agency under the Bush administration has made sure that disaster applies to its own performance. The incompetence shown during the agency's slow and inadequate response to Hurricaine Katrina keeps getting worse. The latest: A study by the Centers for Disease Control confirmed high levels of formaldehyde in trailers issued to displaced Katrina families. The news comes two years after trailer inhabitants and others, like the Sierra Club, first raised concerns about ailments caused by the trailers.

County emergency officials have asked federal and state agencies to investigate possible environmental violations by the Gold Crest Chemical Corp., alleging the company failed to report the use of formaldehyde. Meanwhile, the cause of a blaze last month that destroyed the small chemical company and the Mendenhall Post Office in Kennett Township remains unknown, though the Chester County fire marshal says it was a "suspicious" fire. "We're taking it one step at a time," said Paul Ryals, the president of Gold Crest.

Sixteen people were taken to hospitals yesterday after two bottles of formaldehyde broke while being transported in a van in South Camden near Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center. All of the injuries were reported to be minor. Camden fire officials said about 300 people working in the area were asked to remain indoors for several hours until the fumes dissipated. Police diverted pedestrian and vehicular traffic a block in each direction until the situation was declared under control about 3 p.m. Police said the fumes escaped when Dennis Orfield, 26, of Pennsauken, who was driving a van carrying various chemicals in a dozen gallon jugs, stopped suddenly to avoid another vehicle at Haddon and Copewood Avenues.

In the old days, the chemical plant on the hill above Jordan Creek produced explosives. Today, it makes formaldehyde. But for many neighbors, the plant's chief product is anxiety. They fear the sweetly obnoxious odors that sometimes drift through their housing tracts. They fear the water they drink. They fear for the health of their children. And, as much as anything, they fear the unknown. "We get calls every day from people wondering about the health ramifications," said Douglas Bowen, manager of the Whitehall Township Authority, which provides water for 10,500 area residents north of Allentown.

Obnoxious odors are apt to be back pestering Woodbury and West Deptford residents today, but that is because their source is being removed. The removal of a vat of formaldehyde at the Atochem Inc. Polyrez Division in West Deptford was slated for yesterday but was postponed a day. The reason, according to Gloucester County health officials, was that the Swedesboro company handling the removal, Clean Venture Inc., could not line up all the contractors...

Question: We live in a early 1970s-era home in New Jersey that has a cathedral ceiling on one side of the house. It starts in the living room on the first floor and extends to a peak over the master bedroom on the second floor. There are only six inches of insulation there, and there's no attic space in which to add more. The roof was replaced just a few years ago, and we don't want to rip it off to add blueboard insulation there. It has been suggested that we could add the foam insulation board on the inside, attaching it to the existing sheetrock on the ceiling, then covering it with additional sheetrock as the new ceiling surface.

There was blood and formaldehyde everywhere. If you liked "Phantasm," a 1979 slasher film that featured a tall, scary mortician, flying silver killer balls and a posse of ornery midgets, you'll love the sequel. "Phantasm II," opening today, has all the elements of a classic serial horror film, like those endless "Friday the 13th" flicks. This one picks up where the original left off, and leaves off where a "Phantasm III" can easily pick up. You'll recall that nine years ago in "Phantasm," writer-director Don Coscarelli brought us into the wonderful underworld of the Tall Man, a nameless mortician who ruled a loyal legion of hooded midgets, telepathically directed flying stainless steel balls equipped with drills, and used his superhuman strength to pillage and plunder a helpless Smalltown.

The widely used preservative formaldehyde, and styrene, which is found in food containers and coffee cups, are among eight agents added to a list of known and suspected carcinogens by the National Institutes of Health. Formaldehyde, which has been linked to leukemia and a rare type of nasal cancer, is "known to be a human carcinogen," according to the congressionally mandated report published Friday on the health agency's website. Researchers categorized styrene as "reasonably anticipated" to be cancer-causing.

Question: We live in a early 1970s-era home in New Jersey that has a cathedral ceiling on one side of the house. It starts in the living room on the first floor and extends to a peak over the master bedroom on the second floor. There are only six inches of insulation there, and there's no attic space in which to add more. The roof was replaced just a few years ago, and we don't want to rip it off to add blueboard insulation there. It has been suggested that we could add the foam insulation board on the inside, attaching it to the existing sheetrock on the ceiling, then covering it with additional sheetrock as the new ceiling surface.

THE FEDERAL Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has always been hand-in-glove with disaster, but unfortunately, the agency under the Bush administration has made sure that disaster applies to its own performance. The incompetence shown during the agency's slow and inadequate response to Hurricaine Katrina keeps getting worse. The latest: A study by the Centers for Disease Control confirmed high levels of formaldehyde in trailers issued to displaced Katrina families. The news comes two years after trailer inhabitants and others, like the Sierra Club, first raised concerns about ailments caused by the trailers.

The Delaware River is a nice waterway, but Sheila Ballen won't dip her toes in it this summer. As long as companies like Rohm and Haas continue dumping chemicals into the river, Ballen, executive director of the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group, said she'd just as soon stay dry. "I would like to know what is being dumped so as an educated citizen I can make a decision about whether to swim," Ballen said yesterday at a press conference...

In the old days, the chemical plant on the hill above Jordan Creek produced explosives. Today, it makes formaldehyde. But for many neighbors, the plant's chief product is anxiety. They fear the sweetly obnoxious odors that sometimes drift through their housing tracts. They fear the water they drink. They fear for the health of their children. And, as much as anything, they fear the unknown. "We get calls every day from people wondering about the health ramifications," said Douglas Bowen, manager of the Whitehall Township Authority, which provides water for 10,500 area residents north of Allentown.

Sixteen people were taken to hospitals yesterday after two bottles of formaldehyde broke while being transported in a van in South Camden near Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center. All of the injuries were reported to be minor. Camden fire officials said about 300 people working in the area were asked to remain indoors for several hours until the fumes dissipated. Police diverted pedestrian and vehicular traffic a block in each direction until the situation was declared under control about 3 p.m. Police said the fumes escaped when Dennis Orfield, 26, of Pennsauken, who was driving a van carrying various chemicals in a dozen gallon jugs, stopped suddenly to avoid another vehicle at Haddon and Copewood Avenues.

The auction to sell the home of Elizabeth Munro Kapner has been delayed pending the outcome of her court appeal. Kapner, 53, who said her Charlestown Township home was built to accommodate her many allergies, filed an appeal in U.S. Bankruptcy Court - an action that stopped the auction. The sale of her two-story home was ordered by Chester County Judge Lawrence Wood in 1984 - the culmination of a long-running divorce battle between Elizabeth Kapner, an artist, and her ex-husband, Alex Kapner, an attorney who works as a federal mediator.

Members of Chester County's Office of Emergency Services are pushing for action from federal environmental officials over a January fire that destroyed a Mendenhall chemical company. "We don't want this matter dropped," said John MacNamara, assistant director of emergency services. "It's the first one in Chester County we've recommended for any action. " The fire Jan. 26 wiped out the Gold Crest Chemical Corp., which used formaldehyde in its manufacture of embalming fluid.

It is a cold, gray and foggy Sunday afternoon, a day that lacks any evidence of warmth or any hope of sunshine. Standing alongside Route 352 in Thornbury Township are about half a dozen people, bundled in heavy coats and hats, carrying homemade signs that say "End sewage dumping in Thornbury. " Every Sunday since May 15, 1988, with the exception of two weeks, these people and sympathizers have walked the shoulders of this rural highway. Enduring last summer's brutal heat and the winter's cold rain, the protesters have marched for 43 weeks.

County emergency officials have asked federal and state agencies to investigate possible environmental violations by the Gold Crest Chemical Corp., alleging the company failed to report the use of formaldehyde. Meanwhile, the cause of a blaze last month that destroyed the small chemical company and the Mendenhall Post Office in Kennett Township remains unknown, though the Chester County fire marshal says it was a "suspicious" fire. "We're taking it one step at a time," said Paul Ryals, the president of Gold Crest.