Moldy Building Becomes A Case Study

September 5, 2002

September 1, 2002

By HILARY WALDMAN, Courant Staff Writer

Across the country, headlines tell the horror stories of indoor mold: Schools

are closed; families abandon homes with breakfast dishes still in the sink;

Ed McMahon's dog dies; lawsuits and claims by sick workers threaten to

bankrupt businesses.

The tales are terrifying, but are they true? Is indoor mold a genuine health

threat or merely fuel for a national hysteria?

Ethel Dorsey, a 49-year-old secretary from Farmington, may help national

scientists find the answer.

Dorsey is among 250 employees of the Connecticut Department of Revenue

Services who are participating in a government-sponsored study to determine

if there is indeed a relationship between mold-infested office buildings and

work-related respiratory illness.

" Single case reports are numerous; actual case studies are few and far

between, " said -Ganser, an epidemiologist with the National Institute

for Occupational Safety and Health. " We're trying to fill in some gaps. "

The tax department's headquarters at 25 Sigourney St. is one of a handful of

buildings across the country that NIOSH, part of the U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services, has selected for testing............

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