Mysterious odor returns to Delaware offices

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http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2004/02/18/odor.html

Wednesday, February 18, 2004Mysterious odor returns to Delaware offices By Breakey

Delhi News Bureau

DELHI — The musty stink is back in Delaware County's Sen. D. Cook County Office Building, and it's on the move, Eisel, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, said Tuesday.

Testing has ruled out mold as a possible source of the odor, but more tests are planned for Friday to try to pinpoint the cause.

"Our big concern was mold," Eisel said. "But we got the report back from the environmental biologist that showed that there is no harmful mold present.

"On Friday, they are going to do a spectrochromatic analysis to test for other potentially harmful

compounds in the air," Eisel said.

Eisel said the odor, which originally was detected two weeks ago in two corner offices in the building at 111 Main St. in Delhi, is spreading throughout the upstairs of the building.

"I went up there this morning, and you could smell a little bit of the odor in a hallway," Eisel said.

Eight employees were moved out of the affected offices when the stink was originally linked to complaints of headaches and sore throats, Moon, Delaware County Social Services commissioner, said last week.

After large air-scrubbing units were installed in the building Feb. 6 and ran for 60 hours, the stink seemed to disappear, and the employees returned to their desks, Moon said.

Eisel said the stink returned late in the week.

The employees were once again moved to other areas and the air-scrubbing machines ran again last weekend.

He said the displaced workers were moving back into their offices Tuesday.

Eisel said there has been speculation about possible causes, including moldy files that have been stored in the basement.

"It was a stuffy, musty, old odor," Moon said last week. "I think there is more than one cause."

Moon said the initial testing done on the air quality indicated the levels of humidity in building were at about 20 percent when they should be at least 40 percent, which accounted for the complaints about sore, dry throats.