Conn. workers part of national toxic mold study

September 2, 2002

September 2, 2002 Subscribe to the Times | E-mail this story

Revenue department staff has complained of coughs, dizziness, shortness of breath since the building opened.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HARTFORD, Conn. - A national study on whether indoor mold makes people sick will include 250 workers at the state Department of Revenue Services building in Hartford.The 20-story brick-and-glass building at 25 Sigourney St. is one of several nationwide that has been chosen for testing by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.Workers have been complaining of health problems since the tower opened in the 1980s. But the issue boiled over near the end of summer last year.Labor union officials asked the institute to perform a health hazard evaluation after a large number of workers complained of hacking coughs, shortness of breath, sinus infections, dizziness, burning eyes and other serious health problems.-Ganser, an institute epidemiologist, performed initial testing last year and found the rate of asthma among workers at the Hartford building was one-third higher than the state average. About 12 percent of the building's workers said they had asthma, compared with 7.8 percent of the state's general population."Single case reports are numerous; actual case studies are few and far between," -Ganser told The Hartford Courant. "We're trying to fill in some gaps."The Revenue Services building met two important criteria to qualify for the study. An unusually high number of workers there are sick, and the state is spending millions of dollars trying to fix the building.Mold has been cited as the cause of health problems across the country. Schools have been closed. Homes have been abandoned. Lawsuits by workers are threatening to bankrupt businesses.Ethel Dorsey, a 49-year-old secretary from Farmington, is among 23 of the Revenue Services Department's 730 workers whose desks were moved to satellite locations after complaining about health problems related to the building.The 23 workers call themselves "The Sickies." Most are veterans of the tax department and moved to the top five floors of 25 Sigourney St. in 1995, shortly after the state bought the building from Xerox Corp. for $42.6 million."I thought I had a cold. My breathing was so bad I had to prop myself up (in bed) to breathe," said Dorsey, who since has been diagnosed with occupational lung disease and has moved to another building.Other sick workers have stayed in the building, treating their problems with medication.Joe , a division chief in charge of auditing tax returns, continues to work on the building's 17th floor despite building-related asthma., a former marathon runner, said he has always felt fine while running. Inside the building he feels heaviness in his chest and wheezing. Like others, his voice becomes raspy at the end of the day.Although is convinced that his symptoms are building-related and he fears becoming chronically debilitated.

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