Another copy of message re Canada investigative report

[Guest guest]

With Sharon's permission, I sent this to my Congressmen and several others.  I

tried to fix all the spacing issues, so I hope others will send this to their

Congressmen too.

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The following is an important investigative news report out of Canada.  I wanted

to make certain it was read. The report covers the symptoms of illness from mold

exposure, school districts' attempt to silence the information, the accusations

of mental illness against the physically sick, and intimidation tactics used

against them purely for the sake of limiting financial responsibility of

stakeholders of moldy buildings. How can this be happening with our governments

turning a blind eye in the United States of America and in Canada?

They KNOW what is occurring. They have even been told EXACTLY how it is being

done. Some of our most respected medical associations and teaching hospitals are

KNOWINGLY promoting FALSE SCIENCE that causes the sick to be unable to obtain

medical treatment. It is PUBLIC POLICY that this is occurring.

It is a true disgrace that so many know this is happening everyday to thousands

of people and little to nothing is being done to stop the deceit immediately.

Our governments have it in their power to make this STOP TODAY.

Sharon Kramer

National Mold Advocate

 

Investigate report by Leeder

The Globe and Mail, Canada¢s National Newspaper

HEALTH: SICK SCHOOLS SYNDROME

'When kids are sitting there scratching and they can't concentrate on their

little test, it just breaks your heart'

Teachers are complaining, children are suffering, even Health Canada admits that

mould is 'toxic' - but the schools of Lambton Kent District still haven't been

able to get anyone to clean up their classrooms.

JESSICA LEEDER

June 7, 2008

PETROLIA, ONT. -- The fall of 2005 marked a fresh start for Jackie Pynaert, a

veteran teacher beginning a new eighth-grade teaching assignment at Queen

II primary school in Petrolia, Ont. Her homeroom was P1, a portable

classroom across the hall from two friendly teachers who had a long history with

the school.

Still, it wasn't long before Ms. Pynaert, then 42, found herself having a tough

time in class. " I started having flu-like symptoms, chills for two months, and I

couldn't shake them, " she said. " I was coughing, wheezing, we're talking

coughing until you nearly bring up a lung. I had rashes all over my face. " The

students told her that the teacher who had the room before her coughed the same

way.

Puzzled, Ms. Pynaert began to dig into building maintenance records. The school

where she worked, a one-storey brick building in the Lambton Kent District

School Board, had gone through several additions during its 56 years, including

one that resulted in a cluster of eight temporary classrooms (one of which was

Ms. Pynaert's) being tacked onto the school's west wing to accommodate an influx

of students.

Ms. Pynaert was horrified by what she learned from the records. As far back as

2002, teachers were reporting " squishy " floors and rotting wood in the

portables. In 2004, teachers were complaining about headaches and constant

colds. The last teacher in her room went to the emergency room twice with

symptoms similar to her own: breathing difficulties, chronic fatigue, headaches,

nausea. He also had painful sores in his nose.

When class was out, his symptoms would fade or disappear. By December of 2005,

Ms. Pynaert's lips were swelling when she entered her classroom, pockets of

liquid had begun pouching beneath her eyes and a white, filmy fungus was growing

on her face. She also coughed " until I sprayed urine. I was losing bladder

control. My bladder muscle was giving out.. " She couldn't shake the belief that

something in the classrooms was making people sick.

Ms. Pynaert is not the first teacher to develop such a hunch. In nearly every

province in recent years, educators have raised alarms about strange illnesses

they think are caused by mould. Health Canada says mould is " toxic, " and no

amount of it indoors is safe, but there are no laws or policies that require

school boards to search out hidden moulds.. And because the boards fall under

provincial jurisdiction - and the provinces have no official policies on what

specific tests should be done by boards to ensure schools are mould-free - how

mould complaints are handled by school boards can vary considerably.

Many whistle-blowers have been able to muster enough public pressure - often

with the help of intense local media coverage - to force school administrators

to deal with the problem. However, no group of mould-battling teachers has

succeeded in creating a strong enough precedent for subsequent sufferers to draw

on. Often, when teachers' symptoms disappear, so does the mould issue from

public discourse - until the next round of unknowing teachers is struck.

The battle over mould in Lambton Kent, which covers a sprawling rural area with

67 schools, 54 of which house elementary teachers and students, began brewing

more than five years ago, when several teachers from across the district

independently began making health complaints. Some had itchy red rashes,

constant congestion, phlegm buildup, ear fungus, bloody noses or hives. For

others, there was unexplained facial swelling, skin lumps, growths, coughing

attacks, bowel problems, stomachaches, searing headaches and chronic fatigue.

 

" Everybody had to stay drugged to get through work, " said Johanne Tranquille, a

French teacher who had been working in portable classrooms since 1990 - across

the hall from Ms. Pynaert - and coughed constantly, broke out in red facial

rashes and suffered bad sinus problems. Ms. Tranquille said she would drag

herself to work in spite of her symptoms out of fears that " nobody would help

the kids. " But it was tough. " I told my mom one time, 'I think I'll have to quit

teaching. I'm too sick.' "

 

Laurel Liddicoat-Newton, an elementary teacher at Lansdowne Public School in

Sarnia, had to have an egg-sized growth, which her doctor said " bloomed " because

of something in her environment, surgically removed from her neck. Brimming with

frustration at unresolved health problems in her school, she joined a health and

safety committee in hopes of spurring a fix.

That's when Ms. Liddicoat-Newton learned that her colleagues and their students

were suffering too. From 2002 to 2005, records show, Lansdowne teachers filed

more than a dozen official complaints requesting air-quality tests in the

school's portables. After an expert tester was finally contracted by the school

board to deal with the portables, no less than 84 square metres of mouldy and

water-damaged materials were cut out of the structure. However, upon their

return to the classrooms - after air sampling deemed the rooms acceptable - the

teachers still felt ill. In the ensuing months, a repetitive cycle began in

which mould was found, removed and found again.

Amid that cycle, Ms. Liddicoat-Newton found a " garden of mould " beneath a

portable that had supposedly been cleaned. " It was black earth, covered with

orange and white and yellow and green, like cauliflowers, for as far as you can

see, " she said. Exasperated, she ultimately led a work refusal in March, 2007.

" I'm not a person who stands out and fights. I will avoid conflict at all

costs, " she said. " I've always been a fixer. I don't like confrontation and

arguing, especially in public. But I want it to be safe for the kids. Those

little kids are developing immune systems. And they're getting sick. "

 

One of those was Ethan Dickhout, a seven-year-old at a Chatham public school who

is literally scarred from reactions he had in the classroom, his mother said.

" He started to get the spots all over his body. First it was on his forehead.

Then it was on his stomach, his legs, all over his arms, " said Billie Jo

on. " It has caused him to have three or four bald spots on the back of

his head where hair will not grow back. "

When the rash was at its worst, a manager at a Chatham fast-food outlet asked

Mrs.. on not to bring Ethan into the restaurant. " He asked me to leave

because it was making the other customers on edge, " she said. Since Ethan

switched schools last fall, his problems have cleared up. Teachers began turning

to their union, the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, for help. At

group meetings held to air concerns, Ms. Pynaert was the first to talk about her

health problems, which have forced the 45-year-old to take an extended leave

from work. Soon, more teachers began to speak out.

Jodi Mandeno, a Grade 2 teacher from Chatham, said she was taking eight allergy

pills a day so that she could go to school without her body breaking out in

hives. The 32-year-old had logged official health and safety complaints about

her classroom, but also changed her diet, laundry detergents and body wash and

even traded in her brand-new car - out of concern she was allergic to the seat

coverings - to try stopping the hives. Only on March break, when she spent a

week away from her school, did the huge welts disappear.

Afterward, she began documenting her students' symptoms too. By her count, 14

out of 19 students in the class were suffering, mainly from headaches, red

rashes and respiratory problems. One youngster had such bad migraines that his

mother was often called to take him home. " When kids are sitting there

scratching and they can't concentrate on their little test, it just breaks your

heart, " she said.

TEACHERS SILENCED

With the onslaught of complaints showing no signs of abating - by fall, 2007,

Ministry of Labour inspectors had made more than 30 visits to district schools

and issued stop-work orders for 16 rooms - the school board agreed to start

cleaning up the problems in elementary buildings. Their pledge, which will cost

about $1-million a year, was a welcome surprise for teachers. But it came with a

condition: The plan would go forward only if the outspoken teachers responsible

for drawing attention to mould problems agreed to silence their complaints.

Grudgingly, the teachers, via their union, agreed to the deal.

 

The Globe and Mail's interviews - nearly two dozen teachers and parents from

across the school district talked about the ailments they link to time spent in

district schools - all took place before the gag order went into effect. In the

months since then, Om Malik, principal of Environmental Consulting and

Occupational Health Management Inc., based in Mississauga, was contracted to

inspect all of Lambton Kent's elementary schools. He uncovered mould and indoor

air-quality problems in most of the nine buildings he has seen, as well as

repeated signs of shoddy upkeep: rodent excrement, leaky windows and clogged air

exchanges.

For the schools he has seen so far, the inspector has recommended a broad slate

of often-expensive remedies. With four dozen more schools left to be inspected,

worries persist that the schools will not be fixed. It's a concern that school

board officials have tried to strike down.

Gayle Stucke, chair of the Lambton Kent school board, said all the classrooms

will be inspected, as per the agreement with the union. But she also said that

" the idea of a mould-free building is not realistic. "

" Mould in buildings has been an issue forever. ... When you have mould, it's

cleared up and six months later it shows again. " Friends of Ms. Pynaert said she

has begun considering a second career out of worries that returning to her

classroom would make her sick. Ms. Stucke, who would not discuss the specifics

of any teacher's case with The Globe, rejected the possibility, saying: " There's

no medical evidence that in fact those symptoms are caused by mould. ... There's

no scientific connection. "

Mould has been present in the environment since biblical days, but the science

around it remains patchy and controversial. And though the term " toxic mould "

has become a mainstay in popular vernacular, there is still fierce debate in the

medical community over whether it is the sole culprit for illnesses it appears

to cause.

" We all agree that there are a number of health issues. We don't understand them

all, " said Dr. , an Ottawa-based expert who has helped to develop

federal guidelines. One problem is the sheer number of mould species - there are

hundreds of thousands.. Another is that " the constellation of symptoms people

can potentially experience are quite varied, " according to Bartlett, a

microbiologist at the University of British Columbia's School of Environmental

Health who has been studying mould issues since the early 1990s.

" This is the crux of why these things are so difficult to sort out. The medical

community has no problem with the concept that people in mould-infested places

can experience a wide variety of respiratory symptoms, " she said. " There is no

consensus in what happens for other kinds of symptoms. We don't have a nice

clean test that can be applied that gives us a result. "

There is one controversial American doctor who says he does. Ritchie C.

Shoemaker is a land-based family physician who began delving into bacteria

and mould medicine in the mid-1990s, when some of his long-time patients -

swimmers and fishermen - began complaining of memory problems, fatigue, coughs,

chronic pains, diarrhea and sensitivity to bright light. Dr. Shoemaker

ultimately connected their illnesses to an outbreak of Pfiesteria, a

toxin-forming micro-organism responsible for large fish kills in North Carolina

and land. His work with those patients led him to another network that was

complaining of similar symptoms. However, theirs were due to exposures to mould

and water-damaged buildings.

Dr. Shoemaker has since developed a reputation as something of a mould-science

cowboy; he theorizes that people who fall ill after contact with mould are

actually having reactions to the toxins contained in the fungus's microscopic

spores. Among some individuals, particularly those who he says are genetically

vulnerable, biotoxins can cause immune-system impairment or inflammation.

" Mould exposure initiates a series of illness generators, hurting immune-system

responses and altering blood flow to many small blood vessels, " Dr. Shoemaker

wrote in his 2005 book, Mold Warriors: Fighting America's Hidden Health Threat.

He said the effects of biotoxin exposures are often mistaken as influenza,

chronic fatigue syndrome or other common ailments. He claims that he is able to

diagnose biotoxin-related illnesses by analyzing a patient's medical history,

blood tests, physical exam and performance on a visual contrast sensitivity

test, which a colleague developed. That test measures whether toxins have

disrupted neural function.

 

Although his work has been peer-reviewed, he acknowledges that his theories

remain controversial. " Indoor growth of toxin-forming moulds make people sick in

ways most physicians don't yet fully understand, " he wrote in his book. " Proving

that mould causes common illnesses that are rarely recognized by physicians has

been a challenge. "

Schools are particularly susceptible to mould - the problems in Lambton Kent

have been seen in nearly every province, as well as across the United States.

In San Diego, a former schoolteacher named Brinchman has set up the Center

for School Mold Help, a website that serves as a continent-wide clearing house

for information about mould science, policy and media coverage. Ms. Brinchman,

who taught for 25 years before being transferred to a mouldy school where she

became too sick to work, said her website gets 120,000 hits per year, with an

endless stream of requests from teachers looking for help in the mould " war. "

WHY SCHOOLS?

Because schools are often built with flat roofs, they are vulnerable to water

pooling and leakages. In this era of stretched budgets, expensive maintenance

jobs - such as adequately repairing water damage - are often deferred in favour

of spending in the classroom. Schools in the past have tried to fix water

seepage by permanently sealing windows, which has the effect of trapping

moisture in the schools (which helps mould to grow), said Mr. Malik, of the firm

now inspecting the Lambton Kent schools. Poor ventilation is another common

factor abetting mould growth in schools, he said.

In Newfoundland last year, severe mould problems were discovered in at least

eight schools, seven of which were closed. Since last September, mould and water

problems have been discovered in at least two Ontario school districts aside

from Lambton Kent: Ottawa-Carleton and nearby Renfrew.

Kathleen Wynne, Ontario's Education Minister, said last fall that problems in

Lambton Kent schools got out of hand. " This particular situation is one that we

will rely on for some pretty serious lessons, " she said.

Still, individual teachers, including Ms. Pynaert and Ms. Liddicoat-Newton, who

appealed to the minister for help when Labour Ministry processes seemed unable

to stimulate an end to the mould, say she never responded. Asked why she did not

intervene to help with the issue, Ms. Wynne said: " There isn't a direct way for

me to be involved. "

However, lessons drawn from other provinces suggest that there could be.

Canada's most notorious school-mould problem broke out in Nova Scotia in the

late 1990s; more than a dozen schools were closed. In one case, several million

dollars was spent trying to remediate a school before it was finally torn down;

in another, contractors were forced to peel back the building materials to the

rafters to get at all of the mould.

The problem was so bad the Education Minister created a dedicated team of

staffers to travel around the province helping school boards tackle the mould -

and the politics the fungus seems to carry with it.

" My biggest job was to show that I was impartial and that I believed that if you

said the child was sick, the child was sick, " said Gerald Muise, who headed the

department's team. " It was critical to have the province involved..

....

" This health and safety business is used and abused, " he said, adding: " We had

some of the best medical people around. All they could agree on what not to

agree on. "

Also born out of that era was the Halifax-based environmental advocacy group

called Citizens for a Safe Learning Environment. The group, now a registered

charity, was formed in the early 1990s. " I personally went through two years of

being blasted in my community, " said the group's head, . " Teachers

would stop me in stairwells and whisper to me, 'Please don't stop, Mrs.

.' "

By 1997, however, after seeking out national experts on mould and indoor

air-quality problems, members of the group ended up working frequently as

advisers to the Education Department and the following year were asked to work

with the province on the design of new " healthy " schools. Ms. even

received a commendation in the provincial legislature for her efforts.

" We started by pledging that our way of operating was going to be a respectful

one, that we'd get more with honey than vinegar, " she said. " We worked with

solid information ... [and pledged] to be respectful of any of those who were

harming our children. No one really wants to harm children, " she said.

In most cases, Ms. said, the events that led to the discovery of

serious mould problems unfolded in a similar manner to those in Lambton Kent,

where sick teachers, at first, hesitated to speak out.

" I hazard to say that it's happening right across North America, " she said.

" It's amazing how much people can be suffering ... and they're afraid to speak

up. " They're afraid there will be repercussions and things will get worse.

Teachers can be harmed in insidious ways. They can quietly find a little glass

ceiling placed over them, or they can be shipped off to a school in the far

reaches of the school board, or you miss out on your principalship. You become a

troublemaker when you speak out against your employer. "

MENTAL HEALTH QUESTIONED

For Ms. Pynaert, the Lambton teacher who had been the most outspoken on the

mould issue, the full price tag of the ordeal has yet to be tallied. When she

last met with The Globe, her health was still waning despite being out of the

classroom for months.

She was hoarse-voiced, tired easily and was suffering gastrointestinal issues.

Also waning was her reputation in the community. Her outspokenness, penchant for

taking after-hours pictures of mouldy schoolrooms to add to her cache of files

and to challenge the school board - particularly in the pages of local

newspapers - worried other teachers and ostracized her from colleagues. Even her

own sister, also a schoolteacher, had grown wary of being in public with her.

When the school board began to take a hard line against her allegations, Ms.

Pynaert said, she was " made out to be a liar and a nut. " Her mental health was

publicly questioned. " In the beginning, we thought we would tell the board and

they would save us. They would say, 'This is horrible, and the children are in

there and we've got to get them out,' " Ms. Pynaert said. " What should have been

a surefire health and safety issue has become a political nightmare, " she said.

Because of the agreement with the school board brokered by her union, Ms.

Pynaert was not able to describe her current situation. Friends said she has not

been able to return to work since leaving in 2006 and faces a growing risk of

losing her job if she continues to refuse to go back to her classroom without

being able to prove conclusively that something in the room is causing her

illness.

So far, Ms. Pynaert has gone to extreme lengths to try to validate her claims.

Along with some of the other Lambton Kent teachers, she paid about $600 in

April, 2007, to send blood samples for testing by a California-based

mould-allergy specialist. All of them said they had tested positive for

antibodies related to mould exposures.

Ms. Pynaert's results were so alarming that she spent several more thousand

dollars to take the test results to Dr. Shoemaker for his analysis. In a long

report on his diagnosis, the doctor wrote that he believes her illness is

without a doubt due to mould exposures at work. " The syndrome that affects Ms.

Pynaert is a biotoxin-associated illness that has been given many names,

including Sick Building Syndrome, " he wrote. " To a reasonable degree of medical

certainty, exposure to the interior environment of the water-damaged building is

the sole cause of her illness. " Water damage, he said in an interview, is a

precursor to mould. " Ms. Pynaert is no different from my thousands of cases of

mould illness: She is primed for subsequent illness solely caused by exposure to

the indoor air environment in her workplace. ... She will become ill following

re-exposure to any other environment with presence of biotoxin-producing

organisms growing in buildings with

water damage. "

Dr. Shoemaker went on to say that out of the 4,400 cases he has seen, Ms.

Pynaert's is " one of the most flagrant examples of disregard of an employer's

responsibility to provide a safe workplace I have evaluated. " What this means is

that because of the illness Ms. Pynaert acquired from her workplace, her life

will be forever changed. "

FUNGI FUNDAMENTALS

Moulds are a form of fungi that help to break down organic material and can grow

indoors or out on nearly any surface, from food in the fridge to building

materials left out in the rain. When mouldy material is disturbed, spores are

dispersed into the air and can be inhaled. The worst offender is stachybotrys

chartarum, a greenish-black mould that grows easily on drywall, drop-ceiling

tiles and wood, and which is known to have health effects.

Health Canada guidelines endorse a ban on indoor moulds, noting that " exposure

to fungi in occupational environments causes allergic and toxic diseases, " but

there is no official policy on testing for mould in schools or workplaces.

Even when tests are carried out, they can be inconclusive: Most tests begin with

air quality, which is problematic for a number of reasons, including the fact

that the indoor environmental and air-quality industry is unregulated in Canada.

Consultants can pick and choose from a patchwork of standards set by industry

groups, which do little to scrutinize members' quality of work, said Bruce

, senior vice-president at Pinchin Environmental Ltd., a Mississauga-

based national environmental- consulting company.

According to Mr. , 80 per cent of indoor mould grows in wall cavities and

other hidden places. Buildings that have had water leaks, a fire or poor air

quality are the most susceptible. " When it starts growing inside, mould is a

symptom of a building system that is failing, " said Om Malik, an industrial

hygienist and indoor-air-quality expert who heads the Mississauga- based firm

Environmental Consulting and Occupational Health Management Inc. One thing known

for certain is that water is a major factor.

" Mould and moisture are interchangeable, " Mr. Malik said. " You have to find the

cause of the moisture. "

Leeder is an investigative reporter for The Globe and Mail.