Employees on attack over sick building
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By PATRICK McARDLE Herald Staff - Published: December 7, 2007
BENNINGTON — State officials got an alternately chilly and blistering reception from employees at the temporary Bennington state offices on Thursday while presenting their plan to move employees back into a building that many believe made them chronically ill.
Bennington County Public Defender Marie Wood, one of the "Sarcoid Six," interrupted the meeting after staff from the Vermont Department of Health said they believed they had found the cause of sarcoidosis in the now-empty building.
"To say you've found the cause of sarcoidosis … You're lying. You're lying. … To put us back in that building to save money is ridiculous. Implode the damn thing. Give us a new (building.) That's what we deserve. We're employees of the state of Vermont," Wood said.
In October 2006, the Vermont Department of Health recommended employees be moved out of the state office building after at least six past and present employees developed an unusual disease called sarcoidosis.
Dr. Cort Lohff, an epidemiologist with the Health Department, said Thursday sarcoidosis was "relatively common" but it frequently goes undiagnosed.
Sarcoidosis causes granular growths in the body's organs, frequently the lungs and lymph glands. A patient with sarcoidosis can only be diagnosed through the exclusion of other causes and the effects often go undetected. However, in the worst cases, it can cause organs to fail, sometimes fatally.
"To those of you who drove here today, congratulations. To those of you who have children, congratulations. Some of us with sarcoidosis don't have those options anymore," Wood said.
At prior meetings, Wood said sarcoidosis has left her legally blind in one eye and continues to make her vision worse in the other, leaving her unable to drive.
In November, the Health Department released a report based on studies conducted by the Turner Group, a Connecticut-based environmental testing company, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The report identified three microbes, thermophilic actinomycetes, mycobacteria and paecilomyces, as the likely cause of sarcoidosis, with soot spread throughout the building by a boiler as the likely cause of an unusual number of cases of asthma and asthma-like symptoms.
Gerry Myers, Vermont's commissioner of Buildings and General Services and Commissioner of Health Sharon Moffatt told employees Thursday they planned to institute all of the Turner Group's 13 recommendations for remediating the building.
The recommendations include replacing the boiler with a geothermic heating system, replacing some of the building's original exterior walls and windows, and professionally cleaning the building's air ducts.
Myers admitted it would be difficult to convince employees they should trust the state's proposal.
"There's no way I'm going to absolutely get rid of all the fears," he said.
But none of the employees who spoke at the meeting, including representatives of the Agency of Human Services, the Vermont Department of Corrections, and the Bennington County District and Family Court showed any inclination to return to the building.
Earlier this year, employees were moved out of the building after Gov. James Douglas and Secretary of the Administration Michael K. Smith met with employees.
The building had become a topic of controversy after deadlines for relocating the employees set by Myers' predecessor, Natasha Wallis, were missed by months.
Douglas Gibson, a representative for the Vermont State Employee Association, accused the administration on Thursday of only moving the employees after the Legislature stepped in.
"Why should they trust you now?" Gibson asked.
Instead of moving back into the building, employees said they would like to follow the recommendation of a citizens' group which has been meeting for the last few months to identify a new location for the state office building.
Jack Appelman, a developer who has done many projects in Bennington, has offered to construct a new building in the downtown at a spot popularly known as the former Tuttle's site and lease it to the state.
State Sen. Robert Hartwell, D-Bennington, told the employees on Thursday that he had completed a draft of legislation earlier in the day that would mandate the employees be moved to a new building downtown.
"The building, in my view, is a total gut at the minimum and may be a tear-down," he said. According to Myers, the state hopes to be able to institute all of the Turner Group's recommendations at a cost of about $10 million.
Construction of the new building has been estimated at somewhere between $16 and $18 million.
Moffatt promised the employees that the Health Department would not have made its recommendation if she and her staff did not believe the building would be safe after following all of the Turner recommendations.
Employees expressed doubts because Myers said it wasn't necessary to completely gut the building, but Health Department doctors said they couldn't completely explain the presence of the microbes or promise no further cases of sarcoidosis, and the news that the state planned to return workers to the building came from the media instead of being told directly to the employees.
Daniel Charron, an employee with the Department of Corrections probation and parole office, called the state office building "that tomb" and said he believed he would be gambling with his health to return there.
While Moffatt said she stood by a statement she made to The Associated Press calling the microbes found in the Vermont-owned offices a "smoking gun" that likely caused the sarcoidosis, none of the state representatives would say if that meant the state would take responsibility for causing the sarcoidosis in the six diagnosed patients.
Myers said it would be a "compelling [statement] in the claims."
David Miner, a division manager for Community Corrections and another member of the "Sarcoid Six," challenged Myers and said the state had made his efforts "very frustrating" because they were "so adversarial" that responses to Miner always came through a lawyer.
Myers promised Buildings and General Services would facilitate any out-of-pocket expenses for employees or past employees with sarcoidosis until their claims could be settled.
Contact Patrick McArdle at patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com.
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