Three Years Later, Industry Puts Toxic Mold into Perspective
Features • February 9, 2004
Whatever became of mold? Only three years ago, newspaper headlines, fueled by overzealous trial attorneys and misguided scientific information, trumpeted mold as "the next asbestos."
Since then, ...
Insurance Journal is not responsible for the content of the message below.
Subject: RE: RE: David Golden
Posted On: December 30, 2004, 9:51 am CST
Posted By: Pat Thiel
Comment:
Doug Haney you are my hero!
Thank you so much for your comments.
I would like to add something to my last post:
The company I work for is based in Denver Colorado. While our office in Virginia was overrun with mold and people were dropping like flies corporate was ignoring our pleas, trying to sweep us under the rug, the local courthouse in Denver was closed due to toxic mold. All employees were relocated immediately upon one employee's complaint that they felt his/her illness was due to exposure to mold. There were many articles in the Denver paper concerning the evacuation, rescheduling for courts housed in that building air testing, the clean up, testing after the clean up, possible litigation, etc. Hmmm, sounds like someone out there thought this was very important.
While all this took place in Denver in Virginia we had to struggle even beg to get our hands on the proper forms to complete our Wcomp claims(which were already set to be denied per my Wcomp claims adjuster, on a recorded line which I am sure recorded all my comments but was turned off when he made his).
What I saw with our experience was a Denver-based company who saw first hand in their own city the gravity of this issue and how their own local government quickly responded and expertly handled their mold issue turn a deaf ear to our office in another state and rally the corporate attorneys in an attempt to fight off employee claims for benefits that had not yet even been made. Mold? What mold? We think it's all in your heads. Prove your illness is due to mold, afterall you could just be sick. Those are the responses we received from our local management also (probably per instructions from corporate.) We were told for weeks that air test results were not back when I was told personally (off the record by the testing company rep) that results were back and information had been given to our project manager on an almost daily basis. This means what? He lied. Why? Why couldn't he at least have let the 'at risk' people know there was a real issue at hand instead of indicating most likely it was nothing. We don't know his motivations.
The true issue is this: the building our office is in had to have had mold infestation prior to corporate signing the lease. We have been housed in very leaky buildings before and have never experienced the intensity we experienced in this building. This prior infestation should have been disclosed by the real estate leasing agent. Corporate, now holding the ball, instead of suing the leasing agent or property manager, poised itself to attack it's own employees. Why? Because litigation against some underpaid social worker is MUCH cheaper than litigation against another big machine.
CORPORATE GREED is the root of most evil these days and it will prove to be our demise. How sad, especially for a company that holds itself up to be the gold standard in caring about other people's needs.
Subject: RE: RE: David Golden
Thank you so much for your comments.
I would like to add something to my last post:
The company I work for is based in Denver Colorado. While our office in Virginia was overrun with mold and people were dropping like flies corporate was ignoring our pleas, trying to sweep us under the rug, the local courthouse in Denver was closed due to toxic mold. All employees were relocated immediately upon one employee's complaint that they felt his/her illness was due to exposure to mold. There were many articles in the Denver paper concerning the evacuation, rescheduling for courts housed in that building air testing, the clean up, testing after the clean up, possible litigation, etc. Hmmm, sounds like someone out there thought this was very important.
While all this took place in Denver in Virginia we had to struggle even beg to get our hands on the proper forms to complete our Wcomp claims(which were already set to be denied per my Wcomp claims adjuster, on a recorded line which I am sure recorded all my comments but was turned off when he made his).
What I saw with our experience was a Denver-based company who saw first hand in their own city the gravity of this issue and how their own local government quickly responded and expertly handled their mold issue turn a deaf ear to our office in another state and rally the corporate attorneys in an attempt to fight off employee claims for benefits that had not yet even been made. Mold? What mold? We think it's all in your heads. Prove your illness is due to mold, afterall you could just be sick. Those are the responses we received from our local management also (probably per instructions from corporate.) We were told for weeks that air test results were not back when I was told personally (off the record by the testing company rep) that results were back and information had been given to our project manager on an almost daily basis. This means what? He lied. Why? Why couldn't he at least have let the 'at risk' people know there was a real issue at hand instead of indicating most likely it was nothing. We don't know his motivations.
The true issue is this: the building our office is in had to have had mold infestation prior to corporate signing the lease. We have been housed in very leaky buildings before and have never experienced the intensity we experienced in this building. This prior infestation should have been disclosed by the real estate leasing agent. Corporate, now holding the ball, instead of suing the leasing agent or property manager, poised itself to attack it's own employees. Why? Because litigation against some underpaid social worker is MUCH cheaper than litigation against another big machine.
CORPORATE GREED is the root of most evil these days and it will prove to be our demise. How sad, especially for a company that holds itself up to be the gold standard in caring about other people's needs.