Families blame mold for making them sick

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Families blame mold for making them sick

By PAUL GORES of the Journal Sentinel staff

Last Updated: July 7, 2001

Confounding Fungus

Photo/ Porter

Droegkamp and his family are convinced a form of toxic mold in their

Town of Merton home has caused serious health problems.

What once was Lynn and Droegkamp's dream home now is their nightmare.

When they moved into the $300,000 house in Waukesha County a year ago, they

saw it as a great place for their children to grow. Today, all that is

growing inside is mold - and that is the problem.

They are convinced a form of toxic mold in the house has caused serious

health problems, including a debilitating attack on the immune system of

their 13-year-old son.

After a futile effort to eliminate mold they believe sprouted from windows

that chronically leaked before they moved in, and after talking with health

officials and experts on the subject, they abandoned their Town of Merton

house in April.

They left with little more than the clothes they were wearing because they

feared just about everything else inside, from furniture to their 8-year-old

daughter's dolls, had been contaminated with mold spores.

" It has totally devastated us, " Lynn Droegkamp said. " It has turned our life

upside down. "

Precisely who is liable for the mess may end up being determined in court.

The Droegkamps, who now are living in a cramped one-bedroom house they used

to lease to renters, have asked an attorney to look into liability issues.

Big money at stake

While the Droegkamps' case is at the extreme end of the alleged mold-damage

spectrum, it is hardly the only one linking mold trouble and health. More

and more cases involving mold-infested homes and buildings are ending up in

court or in claims with insurance companies.

In early June, a jury in Texas awarded a woman and her family $32.1 million

in a case alleging extensive mold damage. The jury ruled that her insurer,

Farmers Insurance Group, had failed to adequately address her initial

concerns about water damage and mold. The company has said it may appeal.

That case, and a rash of others involving smaller but still substantial

claims, has the insurance industry preparing for what may be a wave of such

claims as the word about mold damage - and apparently the problem - spreads.

Because mold is virtually everywhere and grows easily on modern building

materials if they frequently are exposed to water, some say it may have the

potential to surpass the $21 billion in insurance claims paid in asbestos

cases.

In a document filed in the Texas case, Farmers Insurance Group estimated

that it alone may have homeowner mold claims costing $85 million this year.

" Clearly this would be on the emerging issues list, " said Englund,

president of the Wisconsin Insurance Alliance. " Both the challenge of

understanding what it is and how it's going to resolve itself are big

question marks. "

Historically, insurance industry spokesmen say, mold damage generally has

not been covered by homeowners insurance because it is seen as a problem

resulting from lack of proper maintenance or construction.

But that has not stopped those with mold problems from filing claims. The

Droegkamps approached their own homeowners insurance company with the

problem, but were turned down.

Loretta L. Worters, spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, said

the national organization contends that mold " is a maintenance issue, that

it's the responsibility of the homeowner. "

" If they find some mold in the home they need to address it right away

rather than wait for it to get out of hand, " Worters said.

In the Texas case, homeowner Melinda Ballard argued that the mold was the

fault of the insurance company because it failed to make proper repairs

after an earlier water-damage claim at her 11,500-square-foot mansion. She

alleged the mold eventually caused health problems for her and her family.

Ballard's home contained some of the same type of mold a Waukesha County

environmental health official found in the Droegkamps' - Stachybotrys. While

the national Centers for Disease Control is non-committal about serious

health hazards related to Stachybotrys, others are convinced it is very

toxic to some people.

The size of the award in the Ballard case has caught the attention of a lot

of people. Worters said it wasn't even an issue a year ago.

" That's certainly something that has been more and more in the forefront,

particularly with these high-profile cases being won, " Worters said.

The issue gained a big name recently when Brokovich, the law assistant

crusader on whom the movie by the same name was based, claimed in California

that mold in her home was causing health problems for her family.

Expensive cleanup

But even smaller and less-publicized problems with mold, require relatively

expensive solutions.

For example, the Town of Caledonia is spending $60,000 to $70,000 to clean

up a mold problem in the Town Hall that was caused by building leaks.

Several town employees had complained about allergies and respiratory

ailments.

Bill Freeman, president of Environmental Management Consulting Inc. in Lake

Mills, said there is no question that complaints about hazardous mold

infestations have increased in the state in the past few years.

Freeman, whose company identifies mold problems and finds contractors to fix

them, said he has had about 50 mold-related jobs in the past year, most of

them at schools, municipal buildings or commercial structures.

" I've been doing indoor air quality surveys for 10 to 12 years, but the mold

thing probably just hit hard in the last three or four years, " Freeman said.

Freeman, for one, believes mold does cause serious health problems for some

people. And he blames the rise in mold damage largely on poor construction.

Mold thrives on the paper portion of drywall, he said.

" You've got to keep the water out, " Freeman said. " If you keep the water

out, drywall is just fine. But they're shooting up so much construction so

quickly that it's done shoddy, and it's just not waterproofed properly. "

If mold claims for insurance companies continue to rise, insurers probably

specifically will exclude mold damage from coverage unless the homeowner

pays an extra premium for it, the Insurance Information Institute's Worters

said.

But most agree the mold-damage issue, and the debate about it, is still in

its infancy.

" A lot of times there's someone to blame, " said Freeman. " Obviously, the

attorneys will sort that out. "

How the Droegkamps' dilemma will turn out is anyone's guess. Lynn Droegkamp

believes her family never will be able to live in their home near Stone Bank

again because they cannot risk any more exposure to Stachybotrys mold. They

allow people to go inside only if they wear protective disposable suits with

a breathing device.

Her family's first priority is to recover their health, she said. All have

suffered varying degrees of illness, she said. The Droegkamps recently

traveled to Cleveland to see one of the leading doctors on mold-related

sickness.

Their finances, meanwhile, have been drained by their fight with the

confounding fungus, and they are saddled with a mortgage on a house they are

afraid to use.

Some people don't believe the house can't just be cleaned up, repaired and

inhabited once again by the family, which adds to the frustration, Droegkamp

said.

Related Coverage

Stachybotrys: Blame for illnesses debated

Toxic molds: Couple sues companies

Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 8, 2001.