Mold causing health problems

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Mold causing health problems

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Photographer: Jim Sitton

Last Update: 5/05 5:18 pm

How to treat small amounts of mold

Mold inspection report (763.4KB)

http://www.wptv.com/content/specialreports/story/mold-apartment-wptv-com-health-\

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CLICK ON THE VIDEO ICON TO LEARN HOW TO TREAT SMALL AMOUNTS OF MOLD WEST PALM

BEACH, Fla. - It grows organically, everywhere in our environment. We're

talking about mold.

But there are times it can grow out of control and cause serious health

problems, especially when it's infesting your home.

The Contact 5 Investigators received a series of mold complaints from residents

living in a string of apartment buildings. Jeanette Gadbury lives in the Lexford

Apartment complex in Hobe Sound.

" I didn't realize it was that bad behind there, " Gadbury said.

When she and her fiancé, Danny , peeled back their wallpaper they found

mold living, growing, and spreading all over their unit.

" No wonder I've been sick so much, I throw up everyday, " said Gadbury.

" I get headaches, nausea, diarrhea. Come to find out I was on the verge of

pneumonia, " said Danny .

The Contact 5 Investigators found and Gadbury aren't the only residents

suffering.

Porrus and her family lived in Astorwood Apartments in Stuart for several

months. She says the whole family started struggling with pulmonary problems,

but for a long time, they couldn't pinpoint a problem.

" It was terrifying, " Porrus said wiping away her tears. " Still, to this day,

it's terrifying. I mean my son is still sick. It was five months of hell, going

doctor to doctor trying to figure out what was wrong with my children. "

Porrus said her 3-year-old son's medical condition was a mystery. His medical

records reveal months of chronic coughing, fevers, bronchitis and pneumonia.

Her daughter's charts show visit after visit, constant green nasal discharge and

chronic Sinusitis.

" We couldn't figure out what was causing their sickness, " Porrus said. " The

stress of not knowing what it was, you know, in the middle of the night,

coughing fits and fevers hitting 104, the whole juggling act, should you take

them to the hospital or not. It was awful. "

For months, her children were on breathing treatments and multiple medicines,

but according to , they didn't help and all of the doctors' X-rays and

testing came back negative.

" We poked and prodded my son in everyway we could and finally I said, 'there's

mold on my ceiling,' " Porrus recalls. " The doctor looked at me and was like,

'well that's it!' I said 'that's what's making my kids sick?' And the doctor

said, 'if there is visible mold, then you have mold in your house and your kids

have the symptoms of mold.' "

says she drove straight home to her apartment.

" I took the corner of the wallpaper down there and it was just running down the

wall, just black spots running down the wall, " said Porrus.

Property managers agreed to move to another apartment, but she says she

took a do-it-yourself mold sample before unpacking in the new place. When mold

started growing in the Petri dish, says she refused to move in. Instead,

she told managers they had a mold problem in their complex and because of that,

she was moving out. was billed 60 days rent to break her lease.

" The problem at Astorwood for sure was that the mold is not just on the

wallpaper, it's the back of the wallpaper, it's in the drywall and wallboard,in

all the wood studs, it's in the floor joints and there were many floors caving

in, " said Beck. For more than two years she was the manager at both

Astorwood in Stuart and the Laxford complex in Hobe Sound, where the Contact

Five Investigators found the first couple.

" In my opinion, these properties are mold habitats, " said Beck.

Both Astorwood and Lexford are owned by Emperian Property Management Inc.

" They instruct their managers and maintenance alike to do the mandatory course

called cubology, and in cubolgy, they tell us that mold is a natural component, "

Beck told the Contact 5 Investigators. " They claim the mold is harmless if left

intact, so what you do when you see it is simply take the bleach bottles they

give you and they tell us to spray and wipe away. "

" You believed bleach would take care of it, " I asked.

" That's what we learned in cubology, " said Beck.

In fact, Beck claims she and her maintenance team were coached by a corporate

manager on how to handle resident's mold concerns.

" You know you never say mold, and he has continuously said that to me and my

staff, " Beck said. " You never say mold, if anyone asks, you only say that it

must be something like black water intrusion. I just thought it was not to

alarm the people. "

Beck claims she too suffered health problems and when she asked to be

re-assigned to a mold free property, the company fired her.

The Contact 5 Investigators received a letter from Beck's former boss, an area

manager for Emperian Properties for 13 years. Ramos confirmed some of

Beck's claims saying: " Kim had a chronic cough " and " I was concerned for her

health. "

The letter also said: " During my tenure, I was aware of many complaints of mold

from residents, and I made the determination to release them from their lease

because they were physically ill due to mold, " Ramos wrote.

Earlier this year, Beck filed a whistleblower complaint with the state, telling

the Department of Business and Professional Regulation all about the cubology,

the bleach method. She even told the agency she was instructed to purchase

plug-in air fresheners to mask the signs of mold.

DBPR officials told us their agency has received no other complaints about

either property in the last two years.

So the Contact Five Investigators took a look at Florida's inspection reports

during that two-year time frame. Both properties passed state inspection with

only minor infractions. There was no mention of a mold problem anywhere in the

reports.

The Contact 5 Investigators offered to meet with managers at Emperian Property

Management, but our request for a sit-down interview was denied.

In a statement, company executive Sam Moerman said that Emperian addresses mold

issues in lease agreements. He also said, " Aside from the property staff on

premises, Empirian has put into place fail-safes to ensure that mold is handled

appropriately and not ignored. In addition to property management, we have made

available district managers, regional managers and a customer service line that

can take reports of mold and ensure that it is solved for the resident. "

Bottom-line said Moerman, " It starts with reporting by the resident. If we don't

know about it, we can't fix it. "

But Jeanette Gadbury and Danny said they reported a mold problem in their

apartment at Lexford almost a year ago.

So the Contact 5 Investigators hooked up with Cardo. He runs Dynamic

Inspection Services in South Florida. He was invited to take samples inside the

couple's Lexford apartment.

" Something like what's behind this wallpaper is way out of hand, " said Cardo.

" This is not something I would want my kids to be around. This is something

that needs to be taken care of right away. "

Cardo sampled the air Gadbury and her fiancé have been breathing. The apartment

failed, according to his analysis. The lab tests, Cardo said, prove it.

" If I was writing a remediation protocol on this, my request would be that they

move out into another place until this is corrected and testing and proven that

it's clean and then they move back in. "

" This is unacceptable, " I asked.

" What I see is unacceptable, yes, " Cardo replied.

" No one should be living here, " I asked.

" Not as far as I'm concerned, no, " he said.

The lab tests confirmed aspergillums penicillium at unusually high levels

recorded by Cardo's equipment. Posted on this page is the summary report from

the testing conducted by Dynamic Inspection Services.

Remediation experts, like Cardo, say bleach in certain circumstances can be

affective when you're dealing with small amounts of mold, but when you're

dealing with more than about 3 inches, you really should get an expert to look

at it.