Videos on the Web site DanielInTheLionsDen.us show a robust, energetic baby playing with his siblings seven months after his hospitalization. Daniel is now 16 months old and, according to his father, is healthy. Dave Conrad is convinced that his son's illness was caused by the closeness of the exhaust vent and supplemental air supply.

Dave Conrad says that the previous owners of the house had "a lot of unexplained health problems, including multiple miscarriages and a learning disability in one child. He says he has also visited 15 HUD homes in his neighborhood and that some of the people had "unexplained health problems."

"I don't care about retribution or whatever," Dave Conrad says. "I just want the public to be warned." He wants them to know that the problem is easy to fix, at least temporarily, with some plastic and duct tape.

Dave Conrad, Rodgers and Bishop are upset that local inspectors do not inspect HUD homes. Wayne Holman, Chief Investigator with the Utah Department of Occupational and Professional Licensing, explains that "local building officials don't really have any responsibility or jurisdiction" to inspect HUD homes, except to make sure that they have been properly set on their foundations and that plumbing and electrical systems have been attached properly.

Bishop has written a draft executive order that he hopes Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. will issue, including the stipulation that "building safety inspectors must stop giving permits to HUD homes or those like them, until they are made safe."

Neither he nor Rodgers stand to make any money off their crusade. They don't even have any family members who live in manufactured housing. It's the poor and the disenfranchised, Rodgers says, that he wants to help: Mexican immigrants living in the homes, American Indians, people who can't afford to live anywhere else, babies.

"I'm just trying to save lives," he says.

E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com