Mold at IBM article from Raleigh News and Observer

[Guest guest]

I've

been following this forum for some time now. I've been sick for 3

years due to exposure to mold in my workplace. Attached is an article

just published in the Raleigh News and Observer that talks about my

exposure and situation. The postings over the last few years have

helped me and been an inspiration to me. Thank you all. I just want

to also help anyone who I can who is in the same type of situation.

Friday, July 11, 2003 12:00AM EDT

Mold

lawsuits

target IBM

By KARIN RIVES,

Staff

Writer

A few days after

30,000

gallons of water flooded her IBM office building in April 2000,

Ord began

to feel sick.

Once an avid

tennis player

, she began suffering from debilitating fatigue and memory loss.

Now on long-term

disability

leave from her job as a senior financial analyst at IBM, Ord is one of

several

workers suing the computer giant, alleging that it failed to protect

employees

from toxic mold at the company's Research Triangle Park campus.

It's one of the

first cases

involving workplace mold to hit a North Carolina employer, but among a

growing

number of such suits brought against companies nationwide in recent

years. With

mold problems increasingly in the news and more lawyers willing to

accept such

cases, insurers have seen triple-digit increases in mold-related claims

against

owners of commercial buildings since 2000, according the Insurance

Information

Institute.

"There isn't a

lot of

science to back up these allegations, but trial lawyers work very hard

to spin

mold into gold," said Bob Hartwig, the Insurance Information

Institute's

chief economist. "A few years ago, these cases didn't exist at all, and

there's no more mold today than ... three years ago. But trial lawyers

have

identified mold as a potentially lucrative source of income."

The RTP workers

named in

the suits say they want to take their cases to court to help other IBM

employees who might still be exposed to hazards.

"I had a hard

time

believing there would be a mold problem at work," said , a

22-year IBM veteran who was a program manager when she began to suffer

from

severe muscle spasms and vertigo in 2000.

"My employer told

me

there wasn't mold in the building, and I believed them," she said.

"It's been very disappointing."

IBM spokesman

Lucy

said the company can't comment on pending litigation. "However, our

first

priority is, and always has been, the health and safety of our

employees,"

Lucy said.

, 43, and

Ord, 40,

filed a lawsuit in Durham County Superior Court in December. It was

recently

moved to U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Their suit came

on the

heels of two other lawsuits filed in October last year in U.S. District

Court

for the Eastern District of North Carolina by two former IBM workers,

Pendergraph and Penny Cozadd. Both sued IBM under the Americans with

Disabilities Act, alleging that the company failed to accommodate them

at work

after they were exposed to mold.

Horn, the

Durham

lawyer representing and Ord, said he was recently retained by

Pendergraph

and Cozadd to file another lawsuit on their behalf. It will allege that

the

company willfully neglected to protect the women from a hazardous work

environment, Horn said.

There is also a

push to get

other IBM workers to come forward.

The Alliance@IBM

this week

sent out a survey asking employees to divulge any health effects they

suspect

could be related to mold. The group, sponsored by the Communications

Workers of

America, was created several years ago as part of an effort to try to

organize

IBM workers at RTP and elsewhere.

"If they had been

more

truthful with us, maybe we wouldn't have these health problems," said

Cozadd, a 42-year-old engineering specialist who had worked 17 years at

IBM

when she suddenly came down with severe allergic reactions that sent

her to the

emergency room.

She and

Pendergraph, who

shared an office in IBM's building 205, contend that they became ill

after a

leak caused water damage near their workspace in 2001. Both women were

terminated from IBM in August, a few months after they filed

discrimination

complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"What happened to

these workers was wrong," Horn said. "It has devastated their lives.

And mold is such a simple thing to fix if you just spend a few dollars

on

repairs and maintenance."

Ord and

allege in

their lawsuit that IBM knew there was dangerous mold in the facility

where they

worked . Both were among employees who continued to work in the

building after

a portion of it flooded one weekend in April 2000.

"One of the fatal

mistakes I believe was made, was that they took way too long to clean

up the

water-damaged material," said Ord, who worked 13 years at IBM before

she

went on long-term sick leave in November 2000. "I had to walk on these

wet

carpets to get to the bathroom or to meetings. I didn't think anything

of

it."

An analysis of

samples of

carpet and wallboard conducted by Research Triangle Institute,

completed in

July 2000, showed there was fungi -- including toxic molds -- in the

building,

their lawsuit says.

Health effects

associated

with toxic mold have not been thoroughly researched. But it's known

that

inhaling certain mold spores can cause problems ranging from skin

rashes,

nausea and respiratory problems to cancer, the Environmental Protection

Agency

says.

Sick building

worries have

led to a rash of mold-related lawsuits across the country in recent

years.

In New Jersey, 16

state

workers sued the owners and property managers of a downtown Trenton

office

building earlier this year, contending that they suffered asthma and

other

respiratory infections because of mold exposure. Dozens more cases have

made

the court dockets in other states.

In general,

indoor air

quality issues have received more attention in recent years, with mold

topping

the list, said Junker, a spokeswoman for the American Industrial

Hygiene

Association. Since the 1970s, buildings have been constructed more

tightly to

conserve energy -- in many cases at the expense of proper ventilation.

"That

can create conditions that make it easier for mold to grow," Junker

said.

[Guest guest]

RaJO> I've been following this forum for some time now. I've been sick for 3

RaJO> years due to exposure to mold in my workplace.

Thanks for the article, . Do you still have muscle spasms? After

3 years, I still do and am wondering if there is any way to get rid of

them. I had finally begun to exercise (walking and 5 min. of health

glider) when it affected my knees and back. They've been so sore for

3 weeks now. I continue also to get muscle cramps all over my body.

Does anyone know what causes this?

Barth

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