Casino workers air toxic-mold concerns

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Casino workers air toxic-mold concerns

/ Staff Reporter

Posted on June 22, 2002

HESSMER - The coughing fits started about eight months ago for Jeannie

Stelly, and since then, this and other symptoms of toxic-mold exposure have

worsened.

Stelly, a Paragon Casino employee from Washington, La., said her health was

fine during her first two years as a casino money-handler. It wasn't until

the third year - the year the new hotel began to be built in 2001 - that her

health began to suffer.

" I began coughing all the time, " Stelly said. " It got to the point where

guests were commenting on it. "

Stelly, along with fellow Paragon workers Kenyawn Augustine, Jane

Bonnette and Dee Galland, met Wednesday in Hessmer to discuss the toxic-mold

problem.

Their symptoms, they say, are related to the October discovery of toxic mold

at the resort. That discovery prompted several other casino workers to claim

in a lawsuit that the mold caused them various adverse health problems.

" I have to use a breathing machine, " Augustine said. " I can't believe this

has happened to me. "

Stelly noticed her health worsened after she began working at a bank near

the casino's oyster bar. Her eyes were watering and irritated all the time,

and she felt achy and sick all over, she said.

Eventually her supervisor, Stoneman, said she was being forced to take

an unpaid 90-day medical leave. Stelly said Stoneman warned that she would

be terminated if she tried to work elsewhere.

" I asked her how I was supposed to pay my bills, " said Stelly, who had

worked at a small casino in Washington to supplement her income.

In the week since she left the casino, Stelly said, she has felt better, and

friends have commented on her improved appearance. Several casino

supervisors told her she must be allergic to something in the casino, she

said.

Stelly linked her health problems to possible toxic-mold exposure when a

co-worker showed her a Town Talk article about others that complained about

the casino.

Galland, who links her deteriorated health to toxic-mold exposure, is

disappointed with the way she and other workers have been treated.

" We've have gotten no calls and no sympathy from the casino whatsoever, "

Galland said. " They say ugly comments about us saying that we're

money-hungry. That's not it at all. We're out for justice, and we're out for

them to take responsibility. "

Since coming forward in May, the Paragon workers have said more of their

fellow workers have gotten sick and more are getting tested for exposure to

strachybotrys chartarum, a highly toxic mold spore that thrives in damp

places.

The women said they are considering taking legal action.

" We'd happily go back if the place was cleaned up, " Galland said, adding

that employees were told not to talk about the mold problem, even though it

was being cleaned up all around them.

Casino and tribal representatives have declined to comment on the issue due

to a gag order issued by Tunica-Biloxi Tribal judge B.C. , who is

expected to hear another case relating to former Paragon employees claiming

exposure to toxic mold.

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