St. 's to close for fumigation

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St. 's to close for fumigation

Ventura County Star - Ventura county,CA*

By Tom Kisken

Thursday, June 28, 2007

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/jun/28/st-johns-to-close-

for-fumigation/

Hospital opens investigation into expenses by former CEO

A plan to temporarily close an Oxnard hospital and fumigate it with

a controversial gas that hasn't been used to fight mold before in

California was approved Wednesday in San Francisco by directors of

Catholic Healthcare West.

The corporate go-ahead finalizes St. 's Regional Medical

Center's decision to close for 10 days beginning Aug. 14. The

emergency room would be closed six days earlier. Patients would be

sent to other hospitals in the county in a plan being laid out by

St. 's, other hospitals and government agencies.

If the state approves the fumigation process, the 350,000-square-

foot hospital will be tented and exposed to chlorine dioxide gas for

about 12 hours. The Watervliet, N.Y., company contracted for the

project, Sabre Technical Services, used the same method to fumigate

mold in some 200 homes and buildings after Hurricane Katrina in New

Orleans and to remove anthrax from government offices, including the

U.S. Senate Hart Office Building in 2001.

Sabre's parent company, BioONE, is co-owned by Republican

presidential candidate and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Sabre has been using chlorine dioxide to fight mold since 2003.

Gas called 100% effective

" It is much more robust than anything that has been applied to

mold, " said company chief operating officer Cavanagh,

characterizing the gas as 100 percent effective. " Let's put it this

way: We've never had to refumigate. "

But outside engineers and remediation experts worry the hospital

could close for 10 days, fumigate and still be stricken with the

fungi that has plagued it since opening in 1992. They worry the gas

may kill the living mold but still not deactivate all of its spores

and its ability to trigger allergies.

Benda is CEO of the Chelsea Group, a Chicago-based building

sciences company that assessed mold problems in New Orleans. He said

his staff inspected a home and a business where there was residual

mold after chlorine dioxide was used by Sabre. He said the gas

corroded metals and rusted nails so badly construction work was

needed.

" The entire place had to be remediated again, " he said, suggesting

that chlorine dioxide is much less effective on mold than on

anthrax. " We would never recommend it as a remediation technique for

mold. "

Risks could continue

Geyer, a construction engineer and remediation consultant

from Bakersfield, also worries active spores will remain after the

fumigation. He said the risks will be complicated if the hospital

continues to be plagued by the leaks that brought the mold in the

first place. " If there are areas that are still moist, these spores

that are in the wall are going to germinate and cause a new

infestation of mold, " he said.

Cavanagh of Sabre contested allegations that at least two

fumigations failed in New Orleans, saying the chlorine dioxide gas

seeps and penetrates everywhere. If the right concentration of gas

is used and the hospital is kept at about 75 degrees and 75 percent

relative humidity, there will be no mold, no allergens, no hidden

spores and no toxins, she said.

The gas works by destroying the proteins the mold needs to live and

reproduce.

" Dead is dead, " said Kowalski, a New Jersey microbiologist who

has researched chlorine dioxide and is working with St. 's on

the fumigation process. " Once a spore has been deactivated, it can't

be regerminated. "

Leaks must be fixed

Cavanagh said treatment is not prevention against future mold

infestations if leaks exist in the hospital or any other structure.

St. 's President T. Murray said the hospital will

continue to fix its water issues before and immediately after the

fumigation. That includes putting on a new roof, coating the

hospital walls, repairing showers and correcting and resealing

windows. The work will be done in a year at the most — before a new

infestation can take hold, he said.

It's been 19 months since Dr. Alden's home in New Orleans

was fumigated with chlorine dioxide. He said there are no signs of

the mold coming back.

" We had 4 1/2 feet of water in our house, " said Alden, an internal

medicine doctor and a biochemist who has examined the fungal residue

microscopically and says there's essentially nothing there.

Hospital a research project

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has approved Sabre

Tech's fumigation method as an effective way of inactivating mold

and mildew, said government spokeswoman Enesta . She said the

Oxnard hospital project is considered a research study that will

show how the gas works when it's used at lower concentrations for a

longer time.

" Until we see the results of the study, we will not know the

effectiveness of the product under those conditions, " she said.

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation also will have to

approve the fumigation plan before the chlorine dioxide is used,

said state spokesman Glenn Brank. The method hasn't been used before

in the state, he said.

Cavanagh said the company is working with federal and state

officials and anticipates no problems in getting an approval. Brank

said the state is still waiting for Sabre's application for what is

called a research authorization. He wouldn't say whether approval

was likely.

Miles Trapolin, a New Orleans lawyer, worries more about rust. He

represents a homeowner suing Sabre and says the company's chlorine

dioxide fumigation killed the Katrina plague of mold in his client's

home but eroded a hot water heater, a circular saw and an air

conditioner.

Fears about equipment

Similar concerns followed the anthrax-related fumigation of a

Washington, D.C., postal facility when mail sorters corroded. Geyer,

the Bakersfield engineer, wonders how chlorine dioxide will affect

high-tech hospital equipment.

St. 's has a CAT scan machine that would likely stay in the

hospital during the fumigation. Cavanagh said that while chlorine is

very corrosive, chlorine dioxide is much less so and shouldn't cause

any problems at the concentration planned for the hospital.

She said the corrosion at the postal station was caused by the use

of chlorine bleach to remove anthrax. She blamed corrosion in New

Orleans on the weather and the floods from Katrina and said the

lawsuit represented one complaint out of hundreds of cases.

The company also is running tests to make sure the gas won't affect

any equipment that remains in the hospital, she said. If there's

reason for concern, the equipment can be removed.

Murray said Sabre will save St. 's time and several millions of

dollars, though he wouldn't disclose contract terms.

Instead of tearing down and removing mold-damaged wallboard piece by

piece in a process that could take at least four more years, the

fumigation will eliminate all the mold in a matter of hours, with

the ongoing repair work designed to end mold worries occurring over

the long term.