A&M-CC students complain of mold

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A & M-CC students complain of mold

Camden Miramar residents say health suffered after they moved into the

apartments

By Lee Goddard (Contact)

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Corpus Christi Caller-Times Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:04 PM PST

http://www.caller.com/news/2009/mar/08/am-cc-students-complain-of-mold/?partner=\

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Camden Miramar apartments mold

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CORPUS CHRISTI — Blurred vision. Headaches. Sinus congestion and trouble

breathing. Full-blown asthma attacks.

Those were symptoms described by students living in the independently run Camden

Miramar apartments on Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi's campus. The culprit,

they claim, was mold left untreated despite requests for help from Camden

Miramar maintenance.

E-mails the Caller-Times obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal

three cross-country runners wrote to former compliance director Secord

asking for help in October 2007 after reporting the problems when they first

arrived in August. The university originally handed over the e-mails to the

Caller-Times with the athletes' complaints redacted, citing privacy concerns.

The Caller-Times argued that this was unacceptable, and the university relented

and redacted only names and apartment numbers.

The e-mails detail health problems of two women's cross-country runners —

difficulty breathing, eye infections and severe headaches. One runner said she

sometimes couldn't make it through her workouts.

, one of the runners who complained about the mold in fall 2007,

said she and her roommates signed agreements with a Camden representative to not

discuss the matter in exchange for a monetary settlement, which her father, Rick

, believed was about $300.

But the e-mails show a level of frustration that increased as they saw no action

taken on the mold or treatments failed. That's the same sentiment of Don ,

whose son suffered similar symptoms after moving into the complex

in August 2008.

" My son kept getting sicker and sicker. He was acting like he had the flu — red

eyes, congestion, " Don said. " Then he went into full-blown asthma

attacks. We took him to the clinic. They said he would have to go to the

hospital if he couldn't get his breathing right.

" He couldn't concentrate and got worse when he came back. I got mad and sent an

e-mail and told them either they do it or I do it. They wouldn't take a look. I

had to pick up the phone and start yelling for them to do something. "

Work ordered

Rios, district manager for Camden, which operates 181 properties

nationally, according to its Web site, said there is an online system in place

for filing work orders at the only on-campus property the publicly traded

company operates.

" We don't want to jeopardize anyone's health, " Rios said. " We have a very

tenured maintenance staff. We first take care of those types that are comfort-

or health-related. "

Don and the athletes who appealed to Secord for help disagreed.

said Camden Miramar had problems with lost work orders — not just mold-related

ones.

saw mold when he helped move his son into the 763-unit complex. He filed

a work order that day and said he and his son reported the problem during the

next two months, but said the staff failed to act.

That was essentially the same experience the three runners faced a year earlier,

resulting in the e-mails to Secord and cross-country and track head coach

Flanagan seeking help for their mold problem in October 2007. Their apartment is

not located near ' place and they, too, believed they saw mold when they

moved into their apartment in August 2007.

Secord, Flanagan and then-sports information director Craig Merriman went to the

apartment and took photos. Secord then e-mailed Eliot Chenaux, vice president of

student affairs, and forwarded the e-mails from the athletes. Secord was

concerned about the inaction, writing that maintenance had not properly

addressed the problem in the past.

" My concern is two things, " Secord wrote on Oct. 8, 2007. " First the health of

the students. After looking at the mold visible to the eye, I would not allow my

child to stay in the room. Also the parents are aware of the problem and have

mentioned to the students that they are considering calling the health

department. My second concern is this, problems such as this in the past have

been solved by painting over the issue. "

E-mail trail

Secord's e-mail referred to another mold problem in the apartment of a women's

basketball player in April 2007. In an e-mail that month, Secord said

maintenance twice had been called to eradicate mold, but had only painted over

it.

" I had to move a women's basketball player for mold last year, " Secord e-mailed

Flanagan on Oct. 7, 2007. " The first time they tried to fix it by painting over

it. "

In an April 26, 2007, e-mail, athletic trainer wrote to athletic

training staff that the women's basketball player had been suffering from

" allergy type symptoms which could be related to this mold problem. "

Chenaux said the delay was not the way the problem is supposed to be addressed.

" When we get a complaint, whether it is coming to our office or to Camden, they

have an abatement procedure that they immediately put into effect, " Chenaux

said. " If you catch that kind of stuff early, it's not a serious situation. "

After receiving Secord's e-mail, Chenaux asked that the information be forwarded

to university housing director Drum, the liaison between the university

and Camden Miramar. Chenaux also copied Drum on a response to Secord.

In her e-mail to Secord, a Prado, one of the three cross-country runners,

said she repeatedly asked Camden Miramar maintenance if mold was growing in

their apartment. She and her roommate, , both wrote that they were told

it was just the remnants of on old water leak.

" It was mold and (it's) spreading along the lower part of the wall, " Prado wrote

to Secord. " As soon as you walk into the restrooms you smell the mold and the

restroom on the right side of the apartment is covered with mold along the lower

part and inside the sink. (It's) even on the tiles in the shower. "

Prado added that she and her roommates began to suspect more problems and

checked the vents.

" They were disgustingly filled with mold, " she wrote. " We've all gotten sick and

had a lot of sinus congestion. I wake up having trouble breathing. "

Health concerns

Prado wrote that she experienced blurred vision and headaches. wrote:

" My eye stings at random times and it is very painful. Also sometimes it is hard

for me to see. In practice, my teammates are always telling me to control my

breathing because it is so weezy (sic). "

added that she had problems completing workouts and that she also was

dealing with " nausea, ear aches and terrible headaches. "

Kipen, a mold expert and professor of environmental and occupational

medicine at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey- Wood

Medical School, said there is some disagreement about mold's impact on

health, but that there are some accepted tenets.

" It's widely accepted that mold can cause allergy symptoms such as sinusitis,

but there's more debate as to other effects, " Kipen said. " The exposure would

only hamper them if it caused a disease such as sinusitis, asthma, nasal

congestion. And the world accepts that being around it could trigger an asthma

attack. "

Kipen said the area's climate made it a candidate for mold growth. Chenaux said

he has seen the apartments, which were built from six to 15 years ago, become

breeding grounds for mold when students leave their windows open and run the air

conditioning. He also said mold problems have occurred in units that face

directly out to Oso Bay.

Neither nor the athletes have apartments right by the bay. And they say

the mold already existed when they moved into the complex.

Delayed response

The athletes said they had problems getting Camden Miramar to remove the mold.

Prado wrote: " We put in work orders since the day we moved in and it takes them

at LEAST 1-2 weeks to respond. It has taken them longer for other work orders. "

An Oct. 8, 2007, e-mail from Drum to Chenaux and Secord regarding the runners'

mold concerns said that " no work orders had been put in regarding this repair

and without your notifying us of this issue, it may have progressed further. "

Caitlin Arambula, another runner in the apartment, wrote Secord about the same

time to say that maintenance had her leave for one hour while they treated the

mold. When she returned, she said, the mold was still there and it never abated.

Prado later wrote to Flanagan on Oct. 9 that when she talked with Drum, she was

told they had to fill out a work order for every area covered with mold. For

example, Prado wrote, " restroom shower meant cleaning the restroom shower and

even though mold was visible in other areas, they weren't going to do anything

about it because we didn't submit a work order for that. "

Prado wrote that Drum told her the paint used to cover the mold had a solution

that would kill mold, but she had not seen that result. Prado also wrote that

Drum told her she " didn't even know if we're getting sick because of the mold. "

Drum declined comment when asked about the mold situation.

" I believe Eliot (Chenaux) has spoken on this, " she said. " The conversation ends

with that. "

The e-mail exchanges also indicate students had difficultly dealing with Drum.

" Because she was in a rush (to get to a meeting) she choose (sic) to speak to me

in the lobby in front of her secretary with a loud tone, " Prado wrote in an

e-mail to Flanagan. " She kept asking me what I wanted her to do for me because I

didn't look happy. Of course, I wasn't happy. She is supposed to be helping me

with the situation instead of finding the easy way out. Yes, I appreciate the

new apartment, but that isn't enough. "

Chenaux said Drum is an exemplary employee, and said Drum was " kind of

helpful " after seeing photographs of his son's room. But an Oct. 9, 2007, e-mail

from then-athletic director Teter to Chenaux said that, " Personally, I've

always gotten along with , however, she has never been kind or helpful to

the student-athletes. "

Moving on

The athletes were moved to another apartment. now lives off-campus. Don

, who has dealt with mold as a former manager for an air-conditioning

company, said his son still lives in the same on-campus apartment, but won't

next year. He said Camden Miramar maintenance sprayed the mold with a solution,

but he believes mold has been building up in the duct board.

" It took them 2½ months to fix it and they did a halfway job, " said.

" This stuff still is going on now. I could not believe that they did not take

care of these issues before the kids moved in. This was blatant. There is no way

you could miss this stuff. "

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