"We believe that Dr. De Rosa is a whistle-blower and was removed from his position, which he had held for 16 years, in retaliation for his persistent attempts to push the agency's leadership to take more substantive actions to protect the public's health," the report said.
CDC acknowledged in February of this year that a third of the trailers it tested had formaldehyde levels high enough to harm children, the elderly and adults with respiratory problems, prompting FEMA to accelerate its efforts to relocate the 38,297 families then still in trailers and mobile homes. Fewer than 9,000 remained last month, according to the FEMA website.
The report documented in meticulous detail what the CDC agency knew about the formaldehyde problem, and when.
At congressional hearings six months ago, for example, agency Director Dr. Howard Frumkin and Deputy Director Thomas Sinks testified that they didn't focus on questions about the CDC's formaldehyde assessment until July 2007, when Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) held the first hearing on the issue. But an examination of agency agendas revealed that the issue was discussed during at least 13 meetings prior to those hearings, the report said.
At the hearings, Frumkin and Sinks blamed De Rosa for failing to catch the errors in the initial assessment. Yet the report concluded that Frumkin, Sinks and three others reviewed the assessment, not De Rosa.
The agency's "reaction was marred by scientific flaws, ineffective leadership, a sluggish response to inform trailer residents of the potential risks they faced and a lack of urgency to actually move them from harm's way," the report said.
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mary.engel@latimes.com
