Green Options

What’s the opposite of one of those formaldehyde-reeking FEMA trailers so many Katrina victims had to live in — and get sick in — for months and months? Check out New York artist Paul Villinski’s “Emergency Response Studio,” a solar-powered, refurbished, non-toxic and self-sufficient artist’s studio on wheels.

Set to go on display Nov. 1 as part of the Prospect.1 New Orleans art show, Villlinski’s trailer is a mobile testament to his mission of transforming trash into objects of beauty or functionality (he’s also created butterfly sculptures out of old beer cans and LPs, and wings, jackets, blankets and bags out of lost gloves).

Today’s news included the story that testing on FEMA-supplied temporary housing trailers in Mississippi and Louisiana has found extremely high levels of formaldehyde in the air, despite earlier reports issued by FEMA indicating that there was no problem.

Tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on more than 500 trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi showed formaldehyde levels that were five times higher than levels in a normal house. The levels in some trailers were nearly 40 times what is normal.

The CDC is saying that people living in these trailers “should move out quickly — especially children, the elderly and anyone with asthma or another chronic condition.”