Suit blasts fungi biz at Fox News

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Suit blasts fungi biz at Fox News

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/386381p-327862c.html

By PAUL H.B. SHIN

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

There's something noxious at Fox News that's making people sick -

and it's not Bill O'Reilly.

Two Fox News employees are suing the cable news channel for

allegedly ignoring a toxic stew of mold and pesticides in its

Manhattan headquarters.

But Fox News said the charges are bogus, claiming its studios at

1211 Sixth Ave. have a clean bill of health from federal and state

regulators.

Veteran employees Laurette Deiro and Madronicia e said they

became seriously ill after being exposed to mold and pesticides in

the basement studios and control rooms starting in 2004. They also

claim their bosses used unlicensed workers to spray an insecticide

that had been banned for use indoors.

The fumes got so bad last April that it sickened three anchors on

the morning newscast " Fox and Friends, " and sent a cameraman to the

hospital after he fell unconscious, according to court papers filed

Thursday in state Supreme Court.

But a Fox News executive familiar with the incident said the

cameraman came to work that day with flulike symptoms, and that his

fainting spell had nothing to do with fumes.

Deiro and e said the studios suffered from water leakage

whenever it rained, forcing workers to put blue tarps near the

ceilings to catch runoff and divert it to garbage cans. The moisture

created a haven for mold and mildew.

" My lungs took a beating, and I don't know if they'll ever recover, "

said Deiro, a graphics operator who was recently diagnosed with

severe asthma. " We're just really concerned about the long-term

affect and what's going to happen to our co-workers. "

Fox News honcho Ailes himself spoke to employees on June 21 to

allay their fears but downplayed the risk, the plaintiffs claim.

Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said the allegations in the

lawsuit " are baseless and lack merit. "

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration " has since

declined to investigate this further and the [state Department of

Environmental Conservation] did an on-site investigation after which

the matter was fully resolved. Fox News is in full compliance with

both OSHA and DEC guidelines. "

e, a makeup artist who joined Fox News when it started up in

1996, said she rarely called in sick until recently, when her

autoimmune illness forced her to work three days a week.

" I'm not so much worried about my job as about my health, " she said

of her decision to sue her longtime employer.

With Clevstrom

Originally published on January 27, 2006