Environmental health officials have determined a Truckee affordable housing complex that was under investigation for formaldehyde pollution is safe for habitation.
"Our consensus is there is no immediate health threat present and these (formaldehyde) levels are typical of that in any apartment or single-family residence in the state," said Wesley Nicks, Nevada County environmental health director.
Nicks, who reviewed recent test results at Henness Flats Apartments with a state indoor air-pollution specialist Friday, said materials used in building the complex also are "no different than those used anywhere in the state."
"The state and federal governments are looking at reducing (formaldehyde levels) in manufacturing in the long term," Nicks added, "but that's not in the county's purview.
"We were looking at whether there was an immediate acute health threat, in which case we would have evacuated after the first tests, but that was not necessary," he said.
Nicks became involved in the issue soon after some apartment residents, suspecting the new complex could be the cause of their health problems, contacted a former toxicology professor, Jack Thrasher, in May.
With Sierra Club grant funding, Thrasher had some of the apartments tested and, when two showed high formaldehyde levels, he advised residents to ventilate their units and "move out if you can afford to."
Thrasher said symptoms described by the occupants were similar to those of thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims housed in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, with whom he worked as a Sierra Club consultant.
Because of the two high results, Nicks said, he advised the builder/owner to hire an accredited environmental consulting firm to conduct a series of tests and to provide the tenants with information on formaldehyde.
"We took it very seriously," he said.
"The owner responded rapidly. My department witnessed that the sampling was appropriately and accurately performed, and we are satisfied."
"It's great to have this support," said a relieved Caleb Roope, president of Pacific West Communities of Idaho, owner/builder of the 92 two- and three-bedroom units, which opened in 2007.
The tests, conducted by LACO Associates and analyzed by DataChem Laboratories, showed levels currently considered to be safe in both occupied and unoccupied apartments, Nicks said.
Although the occupied units showed higher levels than those that were unoccupied, all were well below the 0.01 parts per million considered unsafe for indoor air by the Environmental Protection Agency and American Lung Association.
Twenty-three occupied units and 28 unoccupied units were given 24-hour passive and active tests from May 14 to June 17, with an outdoor area tested as a control.
"The range … was similar to the range found in single-family residences in California recently studied by the California Air Resources Board," the LACO report concluded.
"Higher concentrations in occupied apartments were likely attributable to formaldehyde emissions from the occupants' personal belongings and activities (e.g. cooking, incense burning, cigarette smoking, etc.)," the report stated.
