Monoxide victims still jittery
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
By Shaun Sutner
ssutner@telegram.com
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE / Jun 4, 2008
WORCESTER — While officials say state offices where several dozen employees were overcome last week by carbon monoxide are back to normal, some workers are still complaining of problems and how the state responded to the incident.
One employee of the state Department of Revenue, which was most affected by the toxic gas leak, is still suffering from severe symptoms after being treated in a hyperbaric chamber at a Boston hospital with another seriously affected worker, according to the woman’s husband.
“She’s not good, not good at all,” Paul Rogers said of his wife, Jeanne Rogers, the DOR employee who had a neurological condition that was worsened by the carbon monoxide. “She spent yesterday seeing two doctors at two hospitals.”
Employees at the Department of Mental Retardation office, which is on the first and second floors of the five-story building at 40 Southbridge St. in Federal Square downtown, also have experienced air quality problems, though DMR officials say the office has been cleared for use.
DMR workers have complained of musty air and poor ventilation for years. One said she developed asthma only after starting work there, and employees have reportedly brought their own air conditioners to work.
During a brief visit to the DMR office yesterday, overhead fans were working, but the ground floor had a distinctly moldy, musty odor. No one in the office would comment publicly about problems there.
Barry Soffan, the building’s owner, arrived yesterday at the office complex just before noon but refused to answer questions about maintenance and improvements to the building.
Jennifer Kritz, a spokeswoman for the DMR, said carbon monoxide detectors were installed in the offices Friday and part of the building was inspected by the Worcester Fire Department before the office re-opened Friday.
“DMR has not received any complaints from staff in this office about moldy or musty smells,” Ms. Kritz said in an e-mail.
Barry Ingber, a spokesman for SEIU Local 509, the union that represents the employees, said that while no one has made formal complaints about air inside the building, “everybody is in agreement that the place is rundown.”
“The current administration inherited this and we’re working with them and holding their feet to the fire,” he said. “It’s really important, as we saw last week, to remedy the situation in state offices that need health and safety improvements.”
Meanwhile, about 140 DOR employees who work on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the Stevens Block building were briefed about carbon monoxide and other air quality issues in a closed-door session Monday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel before returning to work later in the morning.
Some 42 carbon monoxide detectors have been installed at the DOR offices, even though state law does not require the devices in commercial buildings, only in one- and two-family residences, DOR officials said.
A brief false alarm occurred yesterday morning when a detector that one of the employees brought in from home sounded a false positive alarm, said Robert R. Bliss, a spokesman for the revenue agency.
DOR Commissioner Navjeet Bal spoke at the hotel meeting and made a favorable impression by expressing empathy for the victims, according to someone who was at the session, but a University of Massachusetts Medical School toxicologist was not as well received. The state Department of Public Health’s “sick building” expert, Suzanne Condon, also was present.
The toxicologist appeared to minimize the seriousness of the outbreak — which caused vomiting and severe headaches and caused 19 people to be hospitalized — and annoyed people who had been hurt by what they considered a serious escape of the potentially lethal, odorless and colorless gas, the source said.
Mr. Bliss noted that the source of the carbon monoxide, a leaky furnace that served the entire building, has been shut down by city code officials.
He also said that it is possible that the DOR offices have higher-than-normal carbon dioxide levels, indicating poor ventilation, and that a consultant will study air quality in the building and the structure’s heating, ventilation and cooling system “top to bottom.”
The DOR also will extend the time period for a few more days to file workers’ compensation claims, Mr. Bliss said.
“We were gratified by the professionalism shown by the workers,” Mr. Bliss said. “This was very scary.”
Contact Shaun Sutner by e-mail at ssutner@telegram.com.