People who lost their homes after hurricane Katrina and are currently living in FEMA trailers will have the opportunity to have their trailers tested if they file a request.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a statement Friday it would open up the testing program to those living in federally supplied trailers and mobile homes along the Gulf Coast, and also those in Arkansas, California, Florida, Kansas, New Mexico, New York, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reported.

The testing will begin as early as next week with residents who have already requested testing. About 200 trailers and mobile homes would be tested each week, FEMA said.

On February 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that formaldehyde fumes from hundreds of trailers and mobile homes were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes. They tested the air for formaldehyde fumes in 519 trailers and mobile homes between December 21 and January 23. People living in the tested trailers were offered new accommodations. Those whose FEMA trailers haven’t yet been tested will also be relocated.

Since the findings were announced, FEMA said 334 occupants have requested that their trailers be tested too.

Approximately 3,700 people had expressed fears that the health problems they have been experiencing are due to exposure to formaldehyde in their trailers, Jim Stark, director of the FEMA Transitional Recovery Office of New Orleans said at the beginning of February. Questions over possible dangerous levels of formaldehyde had appeared as long as a year and a half ago.

Formaldehyde is a common preservative and embalming fluid, and a chemical used in the manufacture of the trailers. It can cause respiratory problems such as bronchitis and is known to cause cancer; formaldehyde has been classified as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Tens of thousands of people were displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and were provided with temporary housing by the government. Nearly 48,000 households continue to live in the trailers and mobile homes. Henry Falk, director of the CDC's Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention, said last year that standards do not exist at the moment indicating air quality in trailers.

Howard Frumkin, director of the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, said in November, the FEMA suspended the sale of its used trailers to residents and said that these constructions would no longer be used in the case of future disasters.