Toxic mold a costly hazard for homeowners is not becoming a legal and health problem for employers too. Employees are filling lawsuits about health problems they say were caused by toxic mold. About 9,000 lawsuits involving toxic mold have been filed in the USA and Canada in the past 10 years, according to National Underwriter Property & Casualty - Risk & Benefits Management.
The largest settlements and jury awards involve commercial buildings. Skeptics say concerns about mold are mostly hype.
(via USA Today)
10 responses so far ↓
Elric // Mar 9, 2003 at 3:38 pm
In my work place there is over 500 sq feet of mold ,green,light brown,black,and i think even white but my bosses say its harmless
Lorraine Richardson // Feb 7, 2004 at 8:54 am
I am concered about my daughter, who works at a place which I believe has ‘mold in her work place. She let me use the bathroom their and believe me there is ‘Black’ stuff all over the walls. When you enter her store there is a ’smell’ when you enter the store….musty,and damp. She, since working there has had one cold after another she always seems to be coughing, and sound horce. At the store just in the past few days due to all the snow we had when it started to melt due to some warming of the temperature, the snow melted into the store causing a puddle to form, she tried as musch as she could to get rid of the water, called her Boss for help or to at least bring a dehumitifier to help with the dampness, coustomers have also complained of smell in store, yet the Boss to me seems not to be concerned, cause she said he did come down looked around said ‘Oh yes there is water here.’ Comented he now did not think “She” was the cause,” and left. You can tell this ‘water damage’ was done before because the ‘floor’ in the store is sooooooo uneven. She is afraid to do or say anything in fear she will lose her job, she has no health insurance so she can not see medical help everytime she gets sick….but I am concerned as far as her health is concerned. Please tell me what she can do? Or what I can do….I have told her I was going to call someone about h this and she said she would get fired…so that is why I have not at this point.
CONNIE JONES // May 3, 2004 at 12:20 pm
I WORK IN AN OFFICE WERE WE HAVE DETECTED MOLD,WE MOVED HERE 1 YEAR AGO AND SINCE THEN I HAVE HAD NOTHING BUT SINUS PROBLEMS(SINUS SURGERY) I HAVE HAD TO HAVE USE ADVAIR FOR ASTHMA ALSO HAD TO HAVE NUMEROUS BREATHING TREATMENTS AND MY EMPLOYER IS NOT CONCERNED. I’M NOT SURE WHAT TO DO NOW?
TREATMENTS
Gerry Duffett // Jun 27, 2004 at 12:33 am
To Whom It Might Concern.
Here is a copy of a letter I sent to the Toronto Sun newspaper about
an article that was published.
This incident that happened to me is an odd health and safety issue.
Here is a situation where a union might have made a difference.
I will be sending more letters to varios groups in the up coming year.
> Hi Mr Margolis.
> I found your article about Edward P. Wilson all too frightning and
> hits me personally way too close to home.
> I was working at Harper Detroit Diesel in Toronto and one of my co
> workers or somebody in my customer base or the competion started
> poisioning my food over a period of months.
> I almost died.
> I had worked in the diesel generator industry for twenty two years
> as a field service technician at a variety of dealers and
> distributors based mostly out of the Toronto area.
> In this position I worked in and around all types of generator set
> applications such as apartment buildings, schools, retail stores,
> hospitals, marine units, motor homes, data centers, airports,
> telephone switching centers, or just about anywhere you would find
> a generator set.
> This position also took me into a lot of high security buildings
> or buildings that you don’t need to know exist.
> Some of the customers I have dealt with include Metropolitan
> Toronto Police, the Ontario Provincial Police, the R.C.M.P., Bell
> Canada, Transport Canada, Navigation Canada, Public Works
Canada,
> Department of National Defence, the Ontario Realty Corporation,
> Nexacor Realty AT&T, Cantel, C.I.D.A., External Affairs, and many,
> many more.
> I did quite a bit of work on high security micro wave and fibre
> optics communication links all around North America.
> This is where this poisoning comes from.
> One person I worked 15 yrs with on these systems, who I had not
> seen in 4 yrs, called me at home one night in the middle of this
> series of poisonings, who I didn’t even know had my home phone
> number and asked “aren’t you dead yet”.
> I wound up on the West Coast of Canada standing in a parking lot
> with what were suppose to be Chinese Nationals being photographed
> by the R.C.M.P. as part of a smear campaign.
> The worst part of all of this is Gerry Duffett almost died, thats
> me. The next worst part of all of this, is this is my tax
> dollars paying these freaks.
> I wonder how many times a day this goes on.
> I still don’t know who poisoned me.
> I was off work for almost one year.
> I can now 5 yrs later barely hold a full time job.
> The harrasment in my work place is unbelievable as far as off
> colour and snide comments about my mental health.
> There is much more to the story.
> My pager # is 416-612-5689.
> Thank you.
> Gerry Duffett.
14-4218 Lawrence Ave E Box 218
Scarborough Ontario
Canada M1E4X9
gerryduffett@fastmail.ca
gerryduffett@hotmail.com
gerryduffett47@yahoo.com
> P.S.
> Just in the last couple of years a new fibre optics system was
> installed in Ontario to link all the power generation stations to
> one central control center code named Ledcor.
> Don’t tell anybody you know that, somebody might try to kill
> you.
>
barb // Oct 21, 2004 at 1:26 pm
I started working in a small grocery
store 6 months ago.Since then I have noticed black mold everywhere.This may be caused from the roof leaking.When it rains we have buckets everywhere, but that still doesn’t catch it all. The floors are always wet.I have a sink at work that always leaks under a table that is immobile.The one table I have which I can move I recently cleaned under.It was horrible.A combination of black mold and God knows what.A few weeks after that I was using sheet pans to bake on.I had gone through quite a few until I came across a sheet pan that had mold on it that my coworker actually thought was breathing.I had never seen anything like this in my life.The mold was a rainbow of colors.Pink, yellow, blue,red,black, and hairy.On the next few sheet trays was the same thing.I threw them all out.Since my employement I havr been to the hospital three times.Twice for a tongue malady,the doctors dont know what it is.The other time was for severe stomache cramps.I’m also tired all the time and getting sick more often than normal with a much slower recovery time.I have also encountered many customers who have told me thar the store smells very strange.There is one small room in the back of the store that has the most aweful smell. When I’m near that room I often hear other employees comment on the stench.
todd luce // Dec 15, 2004 at 10:08 pm
this has answered a lot of my questions i was exsposed to a flooded building for three years i have been hospitialized three times presently taking inhalers for asma but the stuff that i cough upis brown thick i think it is killing me no antibiotic work i am allergic to them now dont know where to turn and my docs dont know what they are doing
Sherry Beatty // Feb 13, 2005 at 12:36 pm
I had been working for this Co. for about a year and four months, for the first several months every thing was fine ,then our project was moved into like a very wide walk through with windows, and it was no time until one of my co-workers, and myself, started getting sick,and could not get over it , but we noticed on weekends we could breath better,and not be coughing so much. For some reason it hit me there has to be black mold in those windows, we have been having a unnomally wet winter,I knew I was highly allergic to pencillin,and we all know what that is made of. Other than the coughing and sinus, are the systoms my co-worker has,she would have to say what other sytmons she has, these are mine, I will state for the record I do have stressed related asthma, and have never taken medication for it,longer than a couple wks at a time and that would be when I had a real bad cold, now I have to sleep propted up because when I lay down now is when the wheezing really starts, at first my mouth was so raw and dry, had to take medication for that, that really just relieved the soreness, I lived on ice cream for over a month,I could not stand for anything else to touch my mouth,I would carry a jumbo cup of crushed ice to work with me every day,my job requirements called for me to make 100 phone calls a day.
I looked like a walking drug store for a while, I was on steroids, inhaler, Pima syrup fleming, cingular, mouthwash,as I sit here the one thing that has gotten any better,is the sore mouth,I still not to crazy about eating, my chest is still real tight,dry hacking cough,it is like you can feel the flem just wrapping around your lungs, eyesight has gotten alot worse , head aches, I am not one to have headache and then out of the blue (or should I say black) I start having headaches. I have to say I have not had a head ache in the last 13 days I have been out of the workplace.
I memory lost, and since Nov.2004 to today , I have went in and better some days, during the Holidays, I was in a deep dark hole, my husband kept wanting to know what was wrong he had seen me depressed before nothing like this. I didn’t at that time know myself what was going on. So that is my story, now I am just trying to find where to reach for Help… thanks
Rose // Jun 22, 2005 at 3:00 pm
Mold is very dangerous. I also was exposed to mold and have been gout of work since April 2005. My immune system is very low and I am fighting to get well. I am now taking questran and hope that it will help me.
gerryduffett // Jun 24, 2005 at 5:52 pm
Jan 11 2005
To Whom It May Concern.
Wow what an experience.
I was employed at Gal Power Systems in Mississiauga to work on diesel
generator systems.
I was working on a pair of 16 v 92 Detroit diesel generator sets at
4160 volt at a facility called the South West Regional Center in
Chatham Ontario.
I was requested by the project manager Moe Gallick of the Ontario
Realty Corporation to supply and install some fuel system components
at an Ontario Provincial Police transmitter tower close by.
When I went there to do the work I saw that this was an old abandoned
site no longer in use.
I was let into the building and began work.
As I was working I noticed the building had a an unusual amount of rat
poison or toxic chemicals distributed inside the building.
No breathing equipment or protective clothing were supplied by either
my employer Gal Power Systems, The Ontario Realty Corporation or the
Ontario Provincial Police.
Mr Gallick did not spend very much time in the building.
I did not complete the work.
Shortly after this I had to seek medical attention within the Ministry
of Health and was off work for close to a year.
This was a deliberate act.
I almost died.
This act of incompetence was the end of a series of poisonings that
started a couple of years earlier when I was working at Harper Detroit
Diesel on a project at Mississauga Hydro , probably continued when I
was hired by Thomson Technology in British Columbia and almost ended
in my death at Gal Power Systems.
Talk about bad politics or a toxic work place.
That’s kind of the ultimate.
Some people say there is no corruption here in Canada.
The harrasment to date in my workplaces is unbelievable and
intolerable with off colour and
snide comments about my mental health.
There is much more to the story.
Gerry Duffett
14-4218 Lawrence Ave E Box 218
Scarborough Ontario
Canada M1E4X9
Pager # 416-612-5689
gerryduffett@fastmail.ca
gerryduffett47@yahoo.com
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