WASHINGTON – Some government workers say their offices are making them sick. We went inside the HUD building they say is at the center of the problem.
Three thousand people work inside the building. If you ask some HUD employees if the building makes people sick, some say yes.
HUD employee Jamita Fleming said, “If i’m off on vacation for like a week or two, I don’t have any respiratory problems and when I come back I get the problems again.”
Others don’t think the building is making them sick.
“People do say that, but I think some people like to complain in general,” said June Stewart, an HUD employee.
The building is drab and of the so-called “brutalist architecture” of the late 1960s, corridors with so little outside light some people say it’s 10 floors of basement. The union complains that with years of off and on roof leaks, internal spills, and stagnant air there are problems.
“In my particular, office they found stachybotrys, which they tell me is called a black mold, which is one of the worst molds that you can find,” said The AFGE Union Vice President Art Grammer.
The AFGE Union says it paid for that air study. The union president says the AFGE also surveyed its members and 13 percent said the building made them sick.
According to Local 476 AFGE President Eddie Eitches, “When they came into the the building they were sick and when they left, they felt better. ”
HUD management insists the building has passed Federal Occupational Health (FOH) tests for air and water quality, yet admits the building is old and they’re going to do major renovations soon. They said they’d like to move employees temporarily to the new building across the street. That building is the old Department of Transportation building, which had to be abandoned and renovated because it was deemed sick.
The union wants out of the HUD building as quickly as possible. The union’s president said he’d like to see the building leveled, but management said that is not going to happen because it is a historic structure. They just want it renovated so that it is greener and brings in more sunlight.
“Changes in construction methods have caused US buildings to become perfect petri dishes for mold and bacteria to flourish when water is added. Instead of warning the public and teaching physicians that the buildings were causing illness; in 2003 the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, a think-tank, and a workers comp physician trade organization mass marketed an unscientific nonsequitor to the courts to disclaim the adverse health effects to stave off liability for financial stakeholders of moldy buildings. Although publicly exposed many times over the years, the deceit lingers in US courts to this very day.” Sharon Noonan Kramer
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