Horry County Health Department Employees Sickened by Mold

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Aging Horry facilities may pose health risk

By Wiatrowski

The SUN NEWS

State health department workers in Myrtle Beach are worried that the

condition of their clinic might be making them sick and posing a risk to

clients. Several health department workers recently filed complaints with

the S.C. Office of Occupational Health and Safety about a leaky roof and

chronic mold problems in the department's building on 21st Avenue North in

Myrtle Beach. The building is owned by Horry County.

Administrators with the Department of Health and Environmental Control's

Waccamaw District, which includes Horry, town and burg

counties, agree that their buildings in Myrtle Beach and Conway have a

history of problems. But they say those problems are being solved.

Crews are putting a new roof on the Myrtle Beach clinic and a group of feral

cats has been removed from the Conway

clinic's temporary quarters on Main Street.

" The light's at the end of the tunnel, " said district Administrator

. " But to be honest, I think the staff's at the end of their tunnel,

too. "

DHEC gave the county $225,000 on Monday toward design and planning for new

offices in Conway. The county will add $35,000 and donate the land.

The old health department in Conway was destroyed by the flood that followed

Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Since the flood, the offices have been broken up

and located in four different buildings in Conway.

The new building will house all the departments and could be built in the

Atlantic Center Industrial Park. It will be at least late 2002 before money

is available in the county's budget for construction of the building, said

County Administrator Danny Knight.

The county has been DHEC's landlord since 1981, when the state agreed to pay

the salaries of county health workers if counties continued to house them.

Health officials say the compromise put them on the low end of the county's

priority list.

" It's kind of like we are a stepchild, " said, " because we are not a

true county agency. "

Horry County has known for years that it needs a larger health facility,

Knight said. But the health department fell behind a new jail, social

services building and future courthouse and administrative complex, Knight

said.

In recent years, the county has doubled the size of the Loris clinic, built

a new facility in s Crossroads and added a health clinic in the

future South Strand Complex to open in 2003.

" Conway is the area of need right now, " said.

Saundra Carmichael, Conway's nursing supervisor and health worker since

1970, looks forward to a new building.

" I think we've kind of been in a make-do situation for a long time, "

Carmichael said.

This week, the Conway office is swamped with school-age children getting

immunizations before the start of the school year.

Myrtle Beach workers worry children could be put at risk by the unhealthy

conditions in their building. Health department visitors often wait an hour

or more for treatment or help, workers say.

" The health department should be sparkling, " said Pam Mann, an

administrative specialist in the Women, Infants and Children nutrition

program.

Employees say they've suffered headaches, diarrhea and breathing problems

that they blame on poor indoor air quality in their 30-year-old building.

" I never had to take allergy medicine until I came to this building, " said

Thielen, a registered dietitian who works in Myrtle Beach.

The problems at the health department are typical of sick building syndrome,

said Ken Wallingford, indoor air quality research coordinator for the

federal National Institutes for Occupations Safety and Health.

Sick building cases often involve workers complaining of a range of symptoms

with no readily identifiable cause, Wallingford said. The syndrome has been

a problem for about 20 years, particularly among tightly sealed modern

buildings.

A common culprit of sick buildings is Stachybotys, also known as black mold.

It's a fungus that thrives on wet paper and ceiling tiles.

Scientists disagree about the threat Stachybotys poses to people exposed to

it in buildings.

It's unclear if Stachybotys is the source of health problems in Myrtle

Beach, but it's a good possibility, said Straus, a microbiologist and

sick building expert at the Health Sciences Center of Texas Tech University.

Thielen and other employees hope the new roof will take care of their

problems. But they're upset they had to endure years of soggy ceiling tiles

and infested wallboard before the current changes happened.

" I don't want to find out 10 years from now that something I did in my work

environment caused me to be less than viable, " Mann said.

District Medical Director Covia Stanley, in a memo to staffers last week,

agreed to have mold samples tested by a non-DHEC lab to see what they

contain.

In the meantime, workers say they're paying for their own testing.

" We have certain symptoms, and we need to know what it is, " Mann said. " The

simplest solution is to test it and rule it out. "

KEVIN WIATROWSKI can be reached at 626-0305 or 1-800-568-1800, Ext. 305.

NATALIE BURROWES PRUITT can be reached at 444-1722 or 1-800-568-1800, Ext.

722.