OSHA

While I was out in October, one of the IT people was working at his desk when the head of maintenance and a hired HVAC man opened a locked closet door in the IT office. His ears perked up when he heard them say in unison, “Oh shit!” and quickly re-locked the door. Inside the closet was the heater for the portable. It shared a wall with my office.

Later, he tracked down the maintenance head and asked what was going on. He was told that he couldn’t tell him but he could show him. They opened the door. There, under the heater, the entire platform was covered with mold and rat feces.

Knowing the causes of my disease, he grew concerned about his own health. He called OSHA – Occupational Safety and Health Administration – which is the government agency who is to protect workers in their workplace.

They dropped in for an inspection.

The Head of Human Resources, the Head of Maintenance and the OSHA inspector arrived together in his office. The inspector pointed to the locked closet and said, “Open it.” There before them was the mold-covered platform scattered with rat feces. “That is mold,” the inspector said. “We don’t know if it is mold or not before it is tested,” the HR person said. “Lady, I have a PhD in biology. I know mold when I see it.” And with that, he gave them a citation for mold, rat feces and water intrusion.

The portable was shut down. No one was allowed in it.

After denying to me for months that there was any problem with the portable, suddenly lots and lots of money was being spent on mold reports and environmental services companies. By the way, the company hired in May to show that there was nothing wrong with the portable was not hired again. Hmmmm.

It was also noted that the north side of the portable needed to be totally re-done from the foundation up. That was also mentioned in the May report and redacted. Funny, it now needed to be replaced. I took these photos of the portable and the water pooled on the carpets in my office while I was still on campus.

Next: Fire in the Portable