The New York State Toxic Mold Task Force, which first met in December, convened in an office building in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday for a daylong meeting on the health and economic impacts associated with mold.
The task force, which was formally established in 2005 but did not begin work until last year, is to prepare a report for the governor and the Legislature.
One task force member, Christopher D’Andrea, a research scientist at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, presented the panel with an update on guidelines that his department was preparing to advise residents on how to find mold and get rid of it.
He said that the city received about 20,000 mold complaints each year and issued about 14,000 citations. But not all mold problems rise to the same level. Mr. D’Andrea projected a slide of a shower stall, three feet long by three feet wide, to illustrate the type of potential mold environment that people ought to feel comfortable taking a brush or sponge to on their own.
In contrast, in places where mold has spread over 100 square feet, Mr. D’Andrea said, professional mediators are appropriate, along with workers wearing respirators, coveralls and gloves.
In some situations, he said, mold removers might even want to consider using an airlock to separate mold-infested zones from other areas.
Just before noon, the task force took a break for lunch. Downstairs, on Broadway, several dozen demonstrators were gathered, holding aloft banners and a jumbo model of an asthma inhaler. They said that they were concerned about adverse health effects connected to mold, but that they had been blocked from attending the meeting.
(Officials said that the meeting was open to the public but that participants had to register their names in advance; the demonstrators said they had indeed registered, only to be told there was no record of their having done so.)
“Neither New York City or New York State has strong regulations around mold,” said Irene Tung, the director of organizing for Make the Road New York, an advocacy group that organized the demonstration. Ms. Tung said that she arrived with about 40 people.
In the afternoon session, other witnesses described their experiences, both professional and personal, with mold.
Lourdes Rodriguez, a resident of Bushwick, Brooklyn, told the task force that many people in her neighborhood suffered from asthma exacerbated by mold.
Guy Keith Vann, a lawyer who has represented plaintiffs in mold-related cases, submitted 15 academic papers to the task force that he said illustrated the dangers of mold in construction, particularly in walls and ceilings that become waterlogged.
He noted that mold was one of only several environmental hazards. “Mold has gotten a lot of attention because it is visible,” he said. “Bacteria can grow and grow, but you’re never going to see it.”
Another witness was Dr. Eckardt Johanning, who specializes in occupational and environmental medicine and for 15 years has treated people affected by mold. He works with the Fungal Research Group, a nonprofit group based in Albany that promotes the study of the health effects of airborne exposure to mold in workplaces and other group settings.
While it is widely known that mold can worsen allergies, Dr. Johanning said, new research has associated mold with other disorders, including depression and neurological conditions.
“These toxins that are produced by the mold are very potent chemicals,” he said.
Cheryl Borden, who lives in Huntington, N.Y., told the panel that she was exposed to mold for 16 months in 1999 and 2000 while living in Woodbury, N.Y. She said she had suffered from upper-respiratory infections and yeast in her lungs and become acutely sensitive to changes in environmental conditions.
Ms. Borden, who said she favors strict laws controlling mold, said she had attended all of the task force’s meetings. “I want them to see my face every time,” she said. “I want them to remember me.”
2008
10:52 am
Mold is a much larger problem than most people can imagine. My sister lived in a small studio apartment for only 6 months, the ceiling had been painted over by the landlord to hide the black mold and wound up falling through and ruining most of her belongings. Prior to this happening, she had been severly sick and the doctors were testing her for lukemia and other diseases to figure out what the problem was. After the mold was revealed they found it inside her lungs and it has greatly affected her life in a negative way; she became weake, unable to live to her potential - and to top it all off - there really arent many doctors out there who specialize in treating this sort of thing, the one she had passed away, and now she is pretty much on her own. it’s such a pity.
— Posted by seriously sad affects of mold poisoning
2008
11:03 am
It is sad that it has taken so long for anything to be done on the indoor mold issue. The health of so many people could have been prevented if our leaders, etc. would just do something instead of having these meetings over and over and nothing ever happens. I went to see Dr. Johanning in 2000. I also spoke with Guy Van around the same time. I am still waiting for treatment. What treatment they do have is very expensive or some of us have been sick for so long that it may be too late. This issue has been on the table for years,In the 90’s George Bush had mold in the governor’s mansion Mostly the rich, polititians, etc. get help and the rest of us suffer and can’t work as a result and then getting Social Security, Workmans Comp., etc. is very difficult. So we sit and write, try to make our homes as safe as possible, but more will get sick such in the flooded areas if education, help with medical care, and just plain admiting that indoor mold can cause very serious illness to even healthy people, not just the sick. Most of us that are ill were just fine before we encountered indoor mold in our lives. Linda
— Posted by Linda
2008
12:20 pm
I have unusually strong opinions about mold in apartment buildings, and justly so. I was once listed as a defendent in a lawsuit concerning “mold” in a building that I neither owned nor was in any way responsible for. The lawsuit persisted for two years, despite the fact that no evidence - zero, none - ever existed indicating that any mold toxic in any shape or form was ever present in the building. And yet, because of the nature of our legal system, which often favors settlements over trials (and allegations over facts), I found myself putting my life on hold for two years, paying legal fees that ran into the tens of thousands of dollars, just to prove that a.) the mold situation never existed, and b.) the situation didn’t involve me. All of this happened because some human being found a lawyer who saw dollar signs floating above the word “mold” somewhere.
In the end, I won the lawsuit, and I got my money back. What I didn’t get back was the two years of hell that I went through defending myself against the most ludicrous of accusations. The body of research that exists today concerning mold is extremely inconclusive. Believe me, I know. And until that changes, we need to be very, very careful about drawing up laws in response to it.
— Posted by a victim of a different sort
2008
3:40 pm
“Victim of a different sort” provides the exception that proves the rule. Mold in buildings, whether apartments or homes, is a serious issue that government AND industry needs to address, and not leave it up to the lawyers.
— Posted by Janet V