San Diego's Palomar College Library is a Sick Building

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The San Diego Union-Tribune

October 13, 1999

Sickness infects Palomar library; College officials confounded by what has

caused illnesses in so many workers over the years

By Petrillo

SAN MARCOS -- Looming over the half-century-old campus is the 120,000-

volume Palomar College Library, a place designed to make people smarter.

But for as long as it has stood on the hill above campus, the library has

made people sick.

" You want to know how sick? Your lungs hurt all the time; they close up on

you, " said one veteran library worker, who like other ill employees did not

want to be named. " You get home and collapse on the couch because you're so

wiped out, and you sleep until it's time to drag yourself back to work the

next morning. "

Why people are getting sick is a mystery, and while few occupants report

such extreme illness, the toll has been well documented and costly.

Since opening the $5 million building 17 years ago, college officials have

spent more than $2 million trying to cure the library of its mysterious

" sick- building syndrome. "

The syndrome is a phenomenon that health experts blame on post-1970s-style

sealed buildings, which became popular because they used less energy and

were less costly to build. But their lack of air circulation causes problems

when it combines with indoor toxins, and sickens some occupants.

Puzzling syndrome

There is much mystery surrounding the syndrome. It's unclear who gets sick,

where and why. And the problem is considered so serious that a 1991 study by

the World Health Organization found that the syndrome plagues three in 10

commercial buildings.

Confounding the cure for Palomar is the fact that the 44,400-square-foot

library doesn't make everybody sick. The building houses more than 40 full-

time employees and dozens of part-timers on three floors, including the

office of Palomar President Boggs. The library division alone serves

more than 30,000 patrons a year.

" What makes it harder to figure out is that they're not all at the same

time, not in the same areas, they aren't all the same symptoms, " said

library manager Gannett.

So institutionalized is Palomar's sick-building syndrome that it is routine

for employees to take " clean air breaks, " and they have specially designed

forms to report symptoms in the hopes of pinpointing a cause. It is a rare

week when Gannett doesn't get any " sick air " reports; some weeks she gets as

many as six.

The symptoms include a metallic taste in the mouth, burning skin, chapped

lips, eye irritation, stinging in the nose, ringing in the ears and general

itchiness. One worker will without warning lose her voice. Another developed

pneumonia.

Years ago, employees became so frustrated they wore gas masks to dramatize

the problem. Some have transferred to other jobs at the college to escape

the mystery sicknesses. One took a doctor-ordered leave of absence.

Veteran worker Thomson suffered what she termed terrible allergic

symptoms when she worked on the library's first floor. She said none of the

doctors and allergists she consulted could find any conclusive reason for

her illness.

Yet, she stayed on the job. " I've always wanted to work in a library. I like

the atmosphere. The big windows, the books, the people, " Thomson said.

Thomson said her life took a turn for the better when a job opened on the

second floor, which is closer to the grand entrance of sliding glass doors

and access to more windows that open to circulate the air.

While breathing is easier, Thomson said, she's found she suffers from an

annoying chronic condition: an acute sensitivity to odors. " I can smell

everything, " she said.

She barely can stomach being near perfumed people, or unwashed people, and

she coughs and gags from the second-hand smoke that blows in from the

smokers who stand just outside the entrance.

So far, employees say they have not sued or turned to their unions to force

some kind of resolution.

As one veteran employee said: " Don't we all want to believe that our

employer would never expose us to something harmful? It's not like they're

not trying to do something. "

While some workers say they feel stigmatized because of their illnesses, and

did not want their names publicized, Gannett defends her staff's veracity.

" I don't think for a moment that it's people trying to get time off work. In

fact nobody's really taken time off, they just work through it, " Gannett

said.

Variety of remedies tried

In an effort to solve the mystery, college officials have responded to

dozens of recommendations made by hired outside consultants. They've

repainted, recarpeted, rerouted air ducts and replaced fluorescent lights

with more natural lighting.

They have shut down the neighboring co-generation plant that powered part of

the school, for fear the fumes were the problem, and they have ripped out

and replaced the entire ventilation system.

They have punched out the old sealed windows on the first two floors of the

window-filled brick building and installed panes that open.

They even have gone so far as to analyze bird dung in case the huge

community of sparrows that nests on the library roof was causing the

problem. " They took bucket lids and painted smiley faces on them and put

them on the roof, it was unbelievable, " one library worker said with a

laugh.

An analysis of the droppings cleared the birds of blame, officials said.

In 1994, Palomar district trustees spent $1.6 million on one consultant-

recommended fix that caused the library to partially close for months. But

last year, officials acknowledged that even that measure failed to solve the

mystery.

So last June, college officials hired another firm of specialized sleuths in

their effort to crack the case.

Costly syndrome

Sick-building syndrome has spawned a whole cottage industry to deal with the

problem after health experts noticed the ill effects on humans who occupy

the closed-window buildings.

The Environmental Protection Agency, noting that Americans spend up to 90

percent of their time indoors, puts the cost at $10 billion a year in lost

productivity and medical bills from sick-building syndrome.

Sick buildings have been rare in the California community college system,

said a spokesman from the chancellor's office. But in recent years, there

have been cases in San Diego County, including at Midland Elementary School

in Poway, in San Diego at the Mission Valley Inn and, briefly, in the

neonatal intensive care unit at the Sharp Birch Hospital for Women.

Mystery illness: Library manager Gannett (right) and

senior library technician Glenna work in the Palomar College

Library, which has " sick-building syndrome. " EDUARDO CONTRERAS /

Union-Tribune