|
This document is also available as a PDF. A year later, deadly mold still in future Senate day care center By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press Writer April 07, 1999 05:01 PM EST WASHINGTON (AP) _ Constructing a new day care center for children of Senate
employees, officials discovered a potentially deadly mold eating through the walls. A
year later, the children still haven't moved in, frustrated parents have hired their
own safety consultant and the Capitol architect is just now deciding how to solve the
problem. The stachybotrys mold, discovered during construction in March 1998, is especially
dangerous to infants, and adding infant care is one of the changes planned for the
new and expanded Senate day care center. The slimy black mold, still growing in the unfinished building, is another headache
for the embattled architect's office, which maintains congressional grounds and
buildings. In the past year, the office also has endured criticism as it struggled to
bring the Capitol in compliance with workplace safety rules imposed elsewhere in
America and floundered in attempts to revive a moribund waste recycling program. A spokesman acknowledges the architect's office has moved cautiously in the day
care matter, but says it is now ready with a plan to eradicate the stachybotrys
mold - a suspect in the deaths of at least 12 infants in Cleveland in the past six
years and 140 illnesses nationally. Parents remain skeptical. We've had concerns over the length of time it has taken to get things moving,''
said Lisa Tuite, who is president of the day care center's board of directors, made up
of parents. How long does it take to come up with a remediation plan? We wish
we were higher on the priority list.'' It's not clear why the mold, which typically grows on water-soaked ceilings and
walls, appeared in the building. Ms. Tuite, a Senate employee, blames both the
architect's office and the contractor. The contractor didn't do well enough to keep water out of the building, and the
architect's office was not monitoring the problem while it got as big as it did,'' she
said. Parents were first tipped off about the mold through an unofficial phone call from
someone in the architect's office to a board member. Herb Franklin, spokesman for the architect's office, said that officials there decided
when the mold was discovered to quickly notify the parents. If there was a delay, he 1 of 3 7/25/99 4:48 PM Associated Press: Archive Document http://archive.ap.org/getdoc.cgi?id=1389...ARRY+MARGASAK<BR>Associated+Press+Writer said, we're talking about a half a day or a day.'' We had several meetings with the parents' board,'' he said. We decided they
would become our partners to make sure a remediation plan was acceptable to them
and to us. We want to make sure that no one has the slightest hesitancy to occupy
the building,'' which is now due to open in September, a year behind schedule. Meanwhile, the Senate employees' children remain in their existing center in another
building. No senators' children are currently in the program. Franklin said the parents' consultant and the U.S. occupational safety agency, which
has been consulted, have agreed the architect' s plans for ridding the building of the
mold appear to be sound. But Dr. Dorr G. Dearborn of Cleveland, a professor of pediatrics at Case Western
Reserve Medical School who has researched stachybotrys, said the mold is going
to be very difficult to totally eradicate. Taking things down to a practically safe level is a reasonable possibility, but it's
difficult to know what that level is,'' he said. We don't know what level of exposure
causes the disease.'' Angel Campbell, a Senate employee and the board member currently dealing with
the problem, said, Having our own consultant is our way of assuring parents of
children they don't have anything to worry about in terms of health and safety risk.'' The former board member who got the tip about the mold said the architect's office
initially told her the problem might be solved with a simple cleaning with bleach, but
officials settled on a more thorough approach when parents demanded assurances
the mold would be removed in its entirety. The plan now includes replacing wallboard and duct work and testing for water
leaks. A primary contractor on the building, Alberto Gomez of Prince Construction Co., said
he still believes the stachybotrys could just be washed out with Clorox. It
doesn't take rocket science to get rid of it.'' COPYRIGHT ASSOCIATED PRESS LARRY MARGASAK Associated Press Writer, A year later, deadly mold still in future Senate day care
center., 04-07-1999. 2 of 3 7/25/99 4:48 PM Associated Press: Archive Document http://archive.ap.org/getdoc.cgi?id=1389...ARRY+MARGASAK<BR>Associated+Press+Writer 3 of 3 7/25/99 4:48 PM |
| Search |
| Mirrors |