TRUCKEE – Health complaints at an affordable housing complex are being investigated for possible links to formaldehyde.

One environmental toxicologist has described complaints by residents of Henness Flats Apartments as similar to those of thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims who were housed in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers.

Two of four apartments tested so far have shown dangerous levels of formaldehyde as well as inhalable-size particulate matter being tested at a Phoenix lab, said Jack Thrasher, a former UCLA toxicology professor and resident of Minden, Nev.

One of those apartments was home to a baby who died of unknown causes in April, Thrasher said.

Results of four other tests, financed with a Sierra Club grant, are pending.

"We're taking these complaints very seriously," said Caleb Roope, president of Pacific West Communities and owner/builder of Henness Flats. "We're trying to get to the root of it and, if needed, we'll remedy it."

Roope, of Eagle, Idaho, financed the testing of 10 apartments May 15 – five occupied and five unoccupied – "and they were below the EPA recommendations," he said.

Thrasher said he met with residents Saturday at the request of the Sierra Club. Becky Gillette, formaldehyde campaign director, said the Sierra Club is pushing for regulation of formaldehyde, especially in manufactured housing.

The main problem, according to Thrasher, appears to be formaldehyde in a cheap glue used in the sub-flooring. It also is likely to be in the exterior walls, roofs and carpeting, he added.

It's difficult to pinpoint a source of formaldehyde, said Wesley Nicks, director of the Nevada County Environmental Health Department, who said the substance can be in furniture, food additives and "more places than it's not."

Nicks said his department is overseeing more tests financed by the owner. He and Roope said they will meet with residents Thursday. Nicks has also requested an indoor air specialist from the state Department of Environmental Health to attend.

The 92-unit workforce-housing complex opened to great fanfare by town officials in September 2007.

Residents on Saturday said that while in the apartments, they have experienced burning eyes, throat irritation, headaches, dizziness, coughing, stomach upsets, nosebleeds, memory loss and muscle weakness. They begin to feel better after leaving the apartments, residents said.

Some concerned residents are camping, now that warmer weather has arrived; others are moving in with relatives, they said.

That's just what Thrasher has suggested in his warning to residents to "move out if you can afford to." If not, he added, "open windows, buy fans and ventilate like crazy."