Family still feeling health effects of mold

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Family still feeling health effects of mold

BY JOE SYLVESTER STAFF WRITER 02/02/06

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?

newsid=16051384 & BRD=2185 & PAG=461 & dept_id=416046 & rfi=6

Scranton Times

The memories and effects of toxic mold sometimes are hard to wipe

away, even long after people move from a contaminated home.

Wassel, who fled a Habitat for Humanity home in South

Scranton with her family in 2002 because of mold, said Tuesday her

children still have health problems from that house.

" My kids still see a doctor for some infections, body tremors,

respiratory problems, " Mrs. Wassel said.

, 18, Mathew, 17, and Cami, 16, had medical conditions before

moving into the moldy house, their mother acknowledged. They all had

asthma, and Mathew and Cami had diabetes. But Mrs. Wassel said the

problems grew worse in the home.

She said is immune deficient because of the mold exposure,

which was found in his bedroom wall.

" Now he's real susceptible to infection and lung problems, " said

Mrs. Wassel, 41.

Mrs. Wassel, her husband, , 37, and their three children had

lived in the house for five years. When they left, they took only

their clothes and the children's medications. The Wassels now live

in an apartment above Mrs. Wassel's mother's residence in South

Scranton.

The mold problem led to a dispute with Habitat for Humanity of

Lackawanna County, and the city later condemned the house. Habitat

paid two companies $8,330 to clean up the mold. The organization

sold the home in December 2003, confirmed Dalton, support

specialist in Habitat's West Chester office.

" That was the last part Habitat had in (that house), " Mr. Dalton

said.

Officials of the nonprofit group, which helps low-income families

achieve home ownership, said at the time the organization did

everything possible to help the Wassels, including making

significant repairs to the Maple Street home; spending thousands of

dollars to assess and correct mold issues there, and offering the

family a new home.

About a year ago, Habitat offered the Wassels a $15,000 settlement

for the loss of the house, but the family refused because the

settlement required family members to not talk to the media and to

take down its Web site about their mold problem.

Contact the writer: jsylvester@...