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This document is also available as a PDF. AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
CANTON OFFICE BUILDING CURED OF
ILLS, TESTING AGENCY REPORTS
SOME OCCUPANTS STILL LOOKING FOR
NEW LOCATION
Saturday, August 8, 1998
Section: METRO
Page: D2\
By George W. Davis, Beacon Journal staff writer The downtown Canton office building that workers for state and county
agencies blamed for their medical problems has been given a clean bill of
health by an independent testing agency. Canton Health Commissioner Robert E. Pattison said yesterday that results of
testing done by Clayton Environmental Consultants of Cleveland at the former
Stern & Mann building on Cleveland Avenue Northwest showed only two
samples of fungal growth. Both areas have been cleaned up, Pattison said.
The building's owner, Tri-State Realty in Jackson Township, paid for the tests
at the request of the city Health Department. Pattison said Clayton's testing supported the city's inspections in June and
early July. Still, officials at some state agencies said they have checked into moving from
the former department store building. William Casto, director of the Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired,
said his office is "still functioning in the building while continuing to explore
other possible sites in the downtown Canton area." "We have been concerned about our employees in the Canton facility," Casto
said. "We had asked anyone with medical statements to come forward if they
felt their problems were being exacerbated by conditions in the building.
Nobody did." The three-story brick structure houses more than 400 workers with the Ohio
Department of Human Services, the Ohio Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation
Services, the privately operated Family Services Inc. and the Ohio Bureau of
Services for the Visually Impaired. Several employees in the basement and on the first floor have complained for
roughly two years about what they consider unhealthy conditions in the
building. Last year, mushrooms and various other fungi, including
Stachybotrys atra mold, were found growing in water-plagued areas. 1 of 2 7/25/99 6:43 PM NewsLibrary Document Delivery http://newslibrary.krmediastream.com/cgi...cument/nl2_auth?DBLIST=ak98&DOCNUM=44852 Stachybotrys atra mold, were found growing in water-plagued areas.
Stachybotrys is a fungus considered most dangerous to children and the
elderly. All content © 1998 AKRON BEACON JOURNAL and may not be republished without
permission. All archives are stored on a SAVE (tm) newspaper library system from MediaStream Inc., a
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