what do you guys know about mold?

We have mold at my workplace, we finally got the employer to start demanding the building owner do something, but they did not hire a professional to clean it up, they have frick and frack doing it. they removed ceiling tiles and now we can see up into above them and you see the iinsulation and there is an odor. We are on the fourth floor, the roof leaks, they started fixin it on wed. before turkey and it started to rain so they stopped with a big hole in the roof and gave us bags to cover our computers, can't wait to see what will be there on monday. I don't think we should be in there while this crap is going on, but they act like it is no big deal. the test showed penicillium and apergillus, but that is what the air guy said we haven't seen the actual results yet because I have to make a formal request. This is the kind of crap they pull. If someone gets sick, can we sue them? Maybe the threat of liability will get us out of there. They should let us work from home or move us. In the meantime everyone is gettin headaches, I feel like there is sand under my eyelids, and all other allergic symptoms. I guess they aren't serious enough for them to care.

That is very poor on the companies part!!

Mold can be very dangerous and can even cause serious respiratory illness in those with compromised immune systems.

I wouldn't be setting foot back in there until they have professionally cleaned the building.

Can you call the health & saftey board?

Hey. I know frick and frack. They were at MY workplace too.

To partially answer your question: No you should not be in there while they are fooling around with that stuff. If it gets into your lungs, you could be in trouble.

You also need to understand that they will NOT tell you anything. They are being paid to do a job, half-butted as it may be, and they will answer to the boss, not you.

We went so far as to have OSHA come down to our office to have it tested out. They were ticked off because our office is in a state-owned building and to actually have to work at something really blew their minds. They walked around for all of 45 minutes with a sensor in their hands, telling us we were fruitloops. You walk iinto the office and inside of 20 minutes, the nose is running, you are coughing, sneezing and you have a headache. That tells ME something is wrong there. THEY said, oh no, the building is fine.

You will NEVER be able to get the information that you need to sue and even if you did, no lawyer would probably want to handle it, too much time, too much work, too much running around, yada, yada, yada. (By the way, what do you have when you've got 50 lawyers at the bottom of the sea, up to their necks in sand?...........a good start.)

We had bottled water for the first 3 years I worked in that building because we are on the southside of Tucson where the TCE is. (highly poisionous). Then the powers that be decided that bottled water cost too much and that the water from the tap was OK. The office demanded a water report. The high and mighty who took away our water, sent the office a report and everybody read it. Then they gave it to me. I look at everyone and said, "You guys have natural chlorine in your water?" See, they had given us the water report from the pumping station, not from the wells. The well water showed <> 2% TCE, which would have been enough to continue the bottled water. The twerp in charge knew that, that's why she gave us the bogus report.

I wish I could tell you to go ahead and get them, but after seeing the stuff I have seen, you will just get yourself in trouble and you will NEVER be able to prove that the dust or whatever caused you to be sick. I am so sorry.

PS: if you want to make an impression, however, get some of those disposable face masks. Scare the bejabbers out of everyone and have some fun doing it.

Originally Posted by gailuvscats

We have mold at my workplace, we finally got the employer to start demanding the building owner do something, but they did not hire a professional to clean it up, they have frick and frack doing it. they removed ceiling tiles and now we can see up into above them and you see the iinsulation and there is an odor. We are on the fourth floor, the roof leaks, they started fixin it on wed. before turkey and it started to rain so they stopped with a big hole in the roof and gave us bags to cover our computers, can't wait to see what will be there on monday. I don't think we should be in there while this crap is going on, but they act like it is no big deal. the test showed penicillium and apergillus, but that is what the air guy said we haven't seen the actual results yet because I have to make a formal request. This is the kind of crap they pull. If someone gets sick, can we sue them? Maybe the threat of liability will get us out of there. They should let us work from home or move us. In the meantime everyone is gettin headaches, I feel like there is sand under my eyelids, and all other allergic symptoms. I guess they aren't serious enough for them to care.

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The best thing to do is to get a lab to test the mold, and then take the sample and the results to the building inspector in your city. What the inspector can do is do a surprise safety inspection in the building, and force the owner to clean it up using professionals. They can close it until everything is cleaned up.

I am the shop steward and we handled it the way my business agent recommended and that was get a petition together to give to the county council, but give it to the administrators first so they can address it before it goes to county council, because if we take it there, the press is there and it will be in the papers and they hate press. So, since they lease the building, they say they can't tell the building owner HOW to do it, just that it needs to be done, and the building owner is cooperating, BUT, what are we supposed to do? They are going to do the work during off hours, but it really doen't matter since they don't know what they are doing. For example, a conference room that has smelled so bad since august, had to keep the door shut, is finally being cleaned up. Well, they drug the carpet thru the office to take it outside!!! What the hell is that!!!! i am going to have to call the union again on monday, but in the meantime we have to go in there, or take personal time. I am going to schedule some visits out so I won't be in there all day. This whole thing is depressing.

I would go to your boss, explain your symptoms and see what he has to say.

If he says "tough luck" call OSHA. You do not need to be working in those conditions.

I feel your pain too...one job I worked at didn't have mold but SOMETHING coming from the vents. You could see black on the white/cream ceiling tiles around ever vent in the ceiling.

Yet the landlord had it "tested" and the results were nothing.
One woman couldn't stop coughing from the minute she walked in the office until the minute she left

I have personally never been sick more times then when I worked there.

Another lady had headaches.

Another had sinus issues

The funny thing is that once we moved all of our symptoms went away.

The best thing to do is to get a lab to test the mold, and then take the sample and the results to the building inspector in your city. What the inspector can do is do a surprise safety inspection in the building, and force the owner to clean it up using professionals. They can close it until everything is cleaned up

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I like this idea, and I will be getting a copy of the report, one of these days. WE have already called the health dept. on other things, including our leaky roof, but giving them the report will give them something to sink their teeth into. THANK YOU

The property manager of a house we rented had Frick come to rip up the floor and moldy subflooring in the bathroom. I grabbed my daughter and we left for the day. Frick didn't even use a mask, and threw the moldy plywood into the back of his van. He was very ill for three months, I came down with pneumonia (for the first time in my life), my daughter developed asthma, and my sweet kitty Wilde died of a mysterious repiratory ailment.

My husband and his cat were O.K. but my husband's at work a lot, or travelling, and his cat is outside most of the time.

You have to make some noise and get the right people in so it's done correctly!

Cheers, from
SwampWitch

Our guys (who don't deal specifically with mold, but occasionally find some in old insulation) wear full face masks while working and prefer that people are not on the premises while they work - so I would get some kind of official ok that the mold levels are low enough to be int he safe range before going in... as swampwitch's post shows - you can get very sick

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

Our guys (who don't deal specifically with mold, but occasionally find some in old insulation) wear full face masks while working and prefer that people are not on the premises while they work - so I would get some kind of official ok that the mold levels are low enough to be int he safe range before going in... as swampwitch's post shows - you can get very sick

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I went to pep boys and bought the one they wear when they paint a car. I am wearing it in the office tomorrow.