April 23, 2009

The agency in charge of protecting the public’s health is charged with poisoning its own employees by forcing them to work in a toxic environment.

So says a newly filed lawsuit against the Southern Nevada Health District.

It’s a story the government agency doesn’t want to talk about, but one Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears has been reporting on for close to a year.

The Health District has shut down daycares and other businesses due to toxic mold, but when it surfaced in their own building, they failed to protect their own employees.

Now one is dead, another sick, and the government agency is facing a lawsuit.

Dan Pauluk was an environmental health inspector who died because of the environment he worked in.

He left a message for the Health District in his dying days.

“I needed to be moved out of the building. You did not move me in a timely manner. You made me stay in the building and this is what is happening to me!”

Problems breathing, problems thinking, and painful rashes over most of his body.

“There are no words to describe how horrifying and tormenting his death was,” recalls his wife, Dr. Wendy Pauluk.

She and caretaker Dean Zachrison became sick too.

They’ve both lost all their teeth because of the mold sickness they got while caring for Dan.

And now, another Health District employee who worked in the same environmental health wing where Dan worked has been diagnosed with mold poisoning.

“In the building, I would have allergic reactions. I would have running eyes, running nose, burning eyes, congestion that I did not know what it was from,” says Dan’s former co-worker Laurie Boswell, who worked at the Health District for 13 years.

She’s also developed immune system disorders, respiratory problems, has had 10 root canals and been told she’s got to have all her teeth pulled.

And of course, there’s the rash.

“It was so similar to Dan’s rash that it scared me. Obviously from the fact that he died I am very afraid. I’m afraid for my family, my children, other employees that work there.”

Laurie Boswell is on disability now.

“I’ve been advised not to be in the building any longer.”

But while she was there, the Health District reassured her the building was safe and the mold levels were insignificant.

“I feel like I’ve been betrayed.”

“They’re there to protect us and protect the community. And we just couldn’t believe it,” says Laurie’s husband Robert Boswell.

Her family is suing the Health District too.

Robert is concerned that “possibly my children, myself have been exposed to this from her bringing home spores on her clothing and it’s just been devastating.”

Contact 13 has learned that there’s concern the mold might still be lurking inside the Health District building, hidden up inside the ceiling, continuing to endanger employees and the public who go there for services every day.

But the Health District won’t talk to us about any of it because of the pending lawsuits.

Tracy Eglet, attorney for the Boswells and the Pauluks, says the Health District knew about the mold and wilfully disregarded the safety and health of employees and their families.

“It’s unfathomable to me that a government organization of any kind could act in this manner… Of any kind… Much less the Health District. It’s the Health District! It’s there to protect our health and it’s doing the exact opposite.”

Mold experts tell us there’s no such thing as an insignificant or safe level of mold.

Environmental tests we’ve obtained show mold has been present in the Health District’s main building for more than a decade.

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