Mold task force testimony, since it was hard to hear

[Guest guest]

I first identified my four of my doctors, Dr. R. Bacom Penn State

Hershey Medical Center, [pulimology] - Dr. R. Shoemkaer Pocomoke MD

[author of books on biotoxic illness], Dr. M Lax, medical *director* of

the Central *New York* *Occupational* Health Clinical Center,

*[syracuse*], and Dr. Sprouse, director of Manhattan health consultants

[aiding 911 victims with toxic overload]

April 21, 2008

Presented to New York State’s Mold Task Force

I am here today as someone who was poisoned by a damp moldy school. I

was a School Librarian.

I worked 13 years in a toxic environment with constant water

infiltration. For over five of those years, I worked without ceiling

tiles, as custodians were tired of replacing them.

In the spring of 2004 I began fainting at work. After 13 years of

promises that leaking would stop, the school custodians attempted

“renovations”. They tore up the often-wet carpeting and carried out

particleboard shelving and 14,000 books. They used no negative air

machines and no containment. They put down tile and then brought back

the same shelving and books that had been in the room all those years.

Following the “renovations” I worked 7 am-9 pm for roughly two weeks

trying to put 14,000 books back in order virtually by myself. This

plunged my already poor health into a severe downturn. Those last months

of that school year I was constantly coughing, had difficulty focusing,

had numbness in extremities, dizziness, and finally my body collapsed.

The Workers Comp Courts, including the appellate division upon appeals,

found me disabled due to “occupational presence of fungi.” I have gone

from an involved parent and community member, to almost a recluse.

Now I suffer from multiple organ chemical intolerance and I cannot

process petroleum byproducts nor chemical synthetic fragrances; and this

room is loaded with both.

I used to enjoy fun times up close with my children and my partner ,

as the photos indicate. I used to work at the Sullivan county community

college on night shifts once a week. I attended family reunions,

weddings, and school functions for my kids, was in equity theatre

productions, sang in area clubs, introduced nationwide musical acts in

huge outdoor festivals.

Now I am pretty much housebound. When I got ill my partner and my

tenth-grader moved out. When my family comes to see me, in order to

maintain the best health, they put on clothing I’ve washed and cover

their hair to avoid my lung pains from breathing in the petrochemicals

and synthetic fragrances, as in the photo. My kids leave clothing with

me that I wash, as theirs is coated in the dryer sheet chemicals from

their dorm laundries.

I have dropped my two girls now at Columbia and Syracuse University from

my health plan. My salary was $84,000 a year, now I get $400 a week. On

that $1600 a month, I cannot afford to pay the $1200 family health

premium, so I only pay $600. My health bills are so high I cannot afford

to drop myself

I come here today at great physical and financial cost. I do it to give

you a visual to a life totally altered by unabated mold infiltrations

over many years. I am the victim of negligence, greed and ignorance. My

current condition was preventable brought on by a series of mistakes.

I don’t know who chose you for this panel, but I do hope you don’t feel

overqualified to ignore the stories of those of us coping with this

illness daily. This is only a tiny peek into the life I’ve lived for

years, totally ruined by mold.

The first mistake that occurred in my downfall was the school design. My

school was built with a flat roof, on a wetland, and into a hill. The

back wall was buried 14 feet deep and seeped water on the first floor.

The library was partially under a greenhouse, which created humidity and

random leaking down structural posts. There was a skylight that leaked.

Architects, who were called in later, found that the flashing on the

library roof was put in backwards. In short, the design was faulty.

Workers quit as the building site kept taking on water. The week before

the school opened, board minutes quoted the superintendent as saying

that the library was leaking. But the brand new school, already leaking,

opened anyway in the fall of 1991. This was their second mistake.

Spackle buckets were placed under leaks and above ceiling tiles. These

would overflow over the next 13 years. The head custodian stayed for

almost 10 years but left with multiple myloma. He gave me a master key

to the school to come in on weekends to dump buckets if there was

substantial rain. The particleboard shelving began to buckle. It was

bolted into place where it would no longer fit.

When NIOSH finally came, 13 years after my library opened, and after I

had left due to illness, the same spackle buckets were in the ceiling.

The negative health assessment by NIOSH is on their website still today,

complete with some pictures.

But – so what?

NIOSH has no clout. There was no penalty to the school district that

neglected to maintain a safe working environment for me. Not only were

they not penalized; they were actually rewarded, as my replacement is

making $30,000 a year less than I would be making now. Mold exposure

should not be an inventive way of skimming off the most experienced and

higher paid employees of any work force.

Here is the bible for mold abatement. [ACGIH’s /Bioaerosols: assessment

and control.]/

Here is what section 15.5 says about judging proper remediation

effectiveness.

“ Ultimate criterion for the adequacy of abatement efforts for treating

biological contamination is the ability for people to occupy or

re-occupy the space without health complaints or physical discomfort”

No health assessments were done, ever. There were no preventative

mechanisms in place and there has been no accountability. Period.

Although I must accommodate myself in all facets of daily life in this

new psychical condition I have, my employer would not accommodate me.

They expected me to occupy the library space and because I could not

without accommodations I was fired.

In the past four years of court hearing delays due to constant appeals

of my wins, I have lived over 11 months, twice now, with NO income.

Nothing. How long would you last?

I have an exposure driven illness. The only way I don’t suffer is to

control my environment. It is no surprise that I have lived mostly

housebound for over three years.

I stand before you with a drastic life change, on public assistance and

hoping to get disability now to pay bills, instead of being the

productive worker in society that I was.

THERE WILL BE NO CHANGE UNTIL:

1. There are regulations and fines for schools regarding safe breathing

conditions. Children are mandated to go to school yet no one is mandated

to make sure that they are breathing safely. They breathe much faster

that we do, and have growing organs. The tools for schools kits are like

a protective order for an abused wife. Schools with budget restraints

are not going to voluntarily spend any money without mandates,

inspectors or lawsuits. There is no change without a fiscal threat.

2. Laws begin to protect workers and not the employers.

3. Industrial hygienists should be bound professionally to give the best

assessment possible and speak directly to those affected, following

AGCIH’s rule of proper abatement, and not just disappear with school

cover-up money.

4. Experts need to study affects of mycotoxins, and if not directly

testing for these, using intelligent analytical basis for determining

probable exposures. This goes beyond sinus infections and watery eyes,

to toxic poisoning. Systemic toxic poisoning weakening the blood brain

barrier etc.

5. Doctors need to admit they have little training in this area and be

willing to read and retrain, to listen to mold victims, to document and

begin to learn about the existing body of knowledge on these exposures.

Page

Liberty, NY 12754

http://www.LibertySchoolMold.com

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