State workers complain of sick buildings

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http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20021006/frontpage/15239.shtml

Sunday, October 6, 2002

State workers complain of sick buildings

Matlock, an environmental specialist with the Washington Department of

Ecology, wears a mask to work everyday because of health problems she

believes are caused by molds inside the building.

Tony Overman/The Olympian

LACEY -- Every morning before she walks into her office in the Water

Resources Unit at the Department of Ecology, Matlock puts on a

protective breathing mask. Upon entering her office, she turns on two loudly

humming air filters.

The filters are so loud, in fact, that Matlock can't use the phone in her

office. And even if she could hear the person on the other end of the line,

that person probably wouldn't be able to hear her, since the mask muffles

her voice.

So every few hours, Matlock gets on her bicycle to ride three miles to her

house, so she can make and return phone calls.

" It's a good chance to get some fresh air, " she said.

Matlock is not the only employee of the Department of Ecology to complain of

symptoms. Over the last few months, about a dozen employees have been

relocated from an area on the second floor where an unidentified odor was

making workers feel sick. Matlock said she's spoken to dozens of other

employees who have suffered ill health effects over the last few years.

Ecology officials have responded, and tests turned up evidence of freon gas

at times when the odor is noticeable. The source hasn't been identified,

according to Carol Fleskes, administrative services director for the agency.

" The bottom line is that we are still actively working on this and are

committed to doing what we can to find answers, " Fleskes wrote in a recent

letter to employees. " Unfortunately, this is a slow, frustrating and costly

process for us all. "

Similar issues have arisen at a number of other state buildings in recent

years. The sick-building phenomenon is certainly not unique to Washington

state government, but that's little consolation to frustrated employees who

would like to be able to go to work without feeling sick.

The challenge for those charged with pinpointing and solving indoor air

quality problems is that rarely are any two people affected in exactly the

same way. Slightly contaminated air or a few patches of mold might send one

worker into fits of sneezing or watery eyes, while the co-worker at a

neighboring desk feels no ill effects at all.

" We find that nine times out of 10, it's an individual sensitivity, " said

Riley, the director of General Administration's Environmental Services

Unit. " That's not a medical diagnosis, it's just saying that most times, we

can't find an agent that would cause a widespread medical concern. And

believe me, we realize that is frustrating for a lot of people. "

Since moving into the Lacey Ecology building in 1992, Matlock, 59, has

suffered a series of, at times, debilitating health problems that she blames

largely on the building itself. She's had blood tests, an MRI, and " every

other kind of test you can think of, " she said.

Already the victim of a thyroid condition, in the last 10 years Matlock said

she has lost 20 percent of her lung capacity, experienced paralyzing bouts

of dizziness, had breakdowns in her immune system, and gone through a host

of lesser symptoms such as nausea, runny nose, sneezing and dry eyes.

The symptoms might be caused by the drive for energy efficiency.

In the 1970s, building specifications were changed to respond to an energy

crisis, with a premium put on buildings that relied more on recirculated air

to save energy. In many cases, it wasn't until the early 1990s that building

codes were widely updated to provide increased supplies of outside air in

buildings.

" You have a whole generation of buildings with all these energy-efficient

measures, " said Janice Camp, director of field research for the University

of Washington's Department of Environmental Health.

" Windows that didn't open, mechanically monitored levels of ventilation --

when you tighten up these buildings, there's just not as much air moving

through the cracks. People are going to feel too hot, or too cold, they're

going to have itchy eyes, sore throats, that sort of thing. "

Because different people are affected in different ways, regulatory groups

find it nearly impossible to adopt uniform standards for dealing with indoor

air quality issues.

" It's not that it's not real, but a lot of it involves individual and

particularized reactions, " said Wood, a senior program manager in

the Occupational and Health Safety program at the Department of Labor and

Industries. " Can you enforce a regulation telling people not to wear

perfume? Because often that's enough to set someone off. "

That's little consolation for employees who are affected by air quality

problems. Riley admits that many such employees often suspect that there are

deeper problems that state landlords are covering up. For his part, Riley

said that in the three years he's directed the Environmental Services Unit,

he's only found one case of significant mold contamination in a state

building.

In that case -- earlier this year, in the Department of Social and Health

Services' Office Building 2 -- the discovery of mold was precipitated not by

employee complaints, but by the work surrounding a remodeling project.

Riley is just one of a number of specialists and consultants who have tested

the problem areas at the Department of Ecology building. Over a month's

time, he never smelled the offending odor.

" That's why it's so difficult, " Riley said. " It's so subjective. "

Matlock is increasingly losing patience with what she sees as too little

action by her supervisors and the state. She said the persistent problems

have resulted in high turnover and decreased productivity by Ecology

employees. But she has stayed on.

" I've spent so long trying to get answers for the issues in this building, "

Matlock said. " I don't feel like I can give up on it now. "

©2002 The Olympian

PATRICK CONDON THE OLYMPIAN On the Web

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Mold Resources: www.epa.gov/iaq/

pubs/moldresources.html

Washington State Department of Health - Got Mold? Frequently Asked Questions

About Mold: www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/ts/

IAQ/Got_Mold.html

Washington State Department of Health - Stachybotrys - Fact Sheet:

www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/ts/

IAQ/Mold-Stachy-factsheet.DOC

Centers for Disease Control - Stachybotrys chartarum and other molds:

www.cdc.gov/nceh/

airpollution/mold/stachy.htm

Thurston County Public Health and Social Services Department:

www.co.thurston.wa.us/health/