Toxic mold invades offices

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Wednesday, May 1, 2002

Toxic mold invades offices

By Moroz

News Service

SAVANNAH - Terri Knapp and her colleagues at the county's Department of

Public Works used to shrug it off with a laugh when their temples started to

throb. " There was a running joke around here that this place gives you a

headache, " said Ms. Knapp, who has worked as an administrative assistant for

the department for the past 11 years.

In February, Ms. Knapp learned it was no laughing matter.

Responding to persistent complaints of nausea, coughing and headaches among

staff, county officials ordered a study of the air quality in the offices on

Sallie Mood Drive.

County health investigators found poor ventilation and high levels of

moisture. The low-lying 1960s building, they learned, is a breeding ground

for a black-green mold called Stachybotrys.

Toxins released by the fungus have been associated with allergylike symptoms

and respiratory problems, and have been investigated as a cause of pulmonary

bleeding leading to a rash of infant deaths in Cleveland in the mid-1990s.

The discovery has left county officials scrambling to find a healthy working

environment for employees.

" My immediate reaction was to get people out of the office, " said

Drewry, the department's director.

Ms. Knapp, whose desk sits beneath a gaping hole in the ceiling where a

concentration of the mold was found, has already been moved to another desk

within the building. So has another worker whose office was found to contain

excessive levels of carbon dioxide, a sign of poor ventilation.

Last week, county commissioners approved the $55,000 purchase of two on-site

trailers to serve as temporary home to Ms. Knapp and 11 others who spend

their entire workday confined to the building. A total of about 123

employees work out of the building, but spend much of their time in the

field, repairing roads, picking up trash and mowing lawns.

A permanent solution could take a while. Because of the building's age and

location in a spot prone to flooding, fixing the problem, health

investigators concluded in their report, would be more costly than building

a new facility.

County officials, who face closing a projected $11.7 million hole in the

2002-03 budget, don't have a lot of money to work with right now.

They are considering moving part of the public works department to the

Mosquito Control facility on Eisenhower Drive sometime this summer after

that department completes a planned move to a new facility at the old

Savannah Airport.

" It won't be an ideal situation, " said Pat Monahan, the assistant county

manager. " But it will provide stop-gap until something permanent is put in

place. "

Any additions to the Eisenhower Road facility, which is much smaller than

the 10,500-square foot office building on Sallie Mood Drive, would have to

wait. County officials are banking on funds from a 1 percent sales tax to

build a new facility. The tax, which needs voter approval, would not be

available until 2003.

Ms. Knapp, who has been looking up the health effects of Stachybotrys on the

Internet, said she was just happy to be getting out of her current quarters.

She has just one lament.

" I wish it could have been done quicker, " she said.