Fans and dehumidifiers were brought to the 37th District Court building by a commercial property restoration company after water entered the basement of the building during heavy rain in January.
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WARREN — With its leaky basement, cramped courtrooms and security concerns, many employees are just plain sick of Warren’s outdated 37th District Court building.
Some even claim they’re getting sick from it.
Runny noses. Sore throats. Allergies. A group of court workers, several of whom asked that their names be withheld from this report, said they continually experience uncomfortable symptoms that coincide with their arrival at work.
“Twenty minutes later, my nose would start running,” one employee said. “I’ve had symptoms for three or four years, easy.”
It’s no secret that water enters the basement of the building on Common Road, east of Van Dyke Avenue, in times of heavy rain or quick thaws. Employees say it comes in at the northwest corner of the basement and that it has in the past flowed through a tunnel that connects the courthouse with the lower level of Warren’s police headquarters.
While some events are worse than others, several employees suspect the musty conditions and residual mold left behind after decades of dampness are affecting their health.
“We’re running out of sick days, a bunch of us,” the same employee said. “I’ve tried to work through it. In December, I had two and a half no-pay days. I’ve used every single sick and vacation day as a sick day. I haven’t taken a vacation since I’ve been here.”
Another employee with autoimmune conditions spoke of frequent fatigue, headaches and vomiting at work.
“I get a headache almost every day that I work. I’d often have a runny nose or a sore throat, which I believe is from mold in the building,” a third employee said. “I’m also allergic to mold.”
A “nonintrusive” mold inspection conducted in February 2017 by a licensed contractor, hired by former 37th District Court Chief Probation Officer Gregg Wilczynski, who retired last spring, found mold in various areas of the building’s lower level. According to the summary, a visual inspection of the interior walls showed signs of water damage. White and dark powdery substances “suspicious of mold” were identified in two locations, and a randomly selected file from a water-damaged box “showed signs of mold.”
The report’s summary indicated that “various types of mold were detected in the air quality tests that are known to have adverse effects on humans,” but that “levels in the air were consistent with normal fungal ecology and showed no elevated presence of airborne mold spore concentrations existing at the time of testing.” The indoor relative humidity (43.6%) and temperature (72 degrees) were both found to be “within the normal comfort parameters,” according to the report.
The report did note that the findings were only a “snapshot” of conditions at the time of testing and that any conditions resulting in the loss of moisture control, including water intrusion, could result in microbial growth.
“The workers were getting sick. They were complaining of respiratory issues, breathing problems, coughing. Some people were even taking off work because of it,” Wilczynski said in December. “I did it in good faith. I did it for us, for the workers, not because I wanted to be a savior, because something needed to be done.”
A second indoor environmental quality report was conducted last August, and a discussion about the findings of the assessments, building maintenance, water infiltration, potential remediation and best-practice recommendations was included in a letter to 37th District Court Administrator Annette Gattari Ross dated Dec. 6. The letter was sent in response to a confidential employee request for a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, health hazard evaluation of the court building.
According to background material summarized in the letter, the building flooded three times: on Aug. 11, 2014; July 8, 2016; and July 6, 2019. The summary indicates that employees first reported health symptoms after the 2014 flood and that they worsened after the later events. It was also noted that a Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, complaint was filed after the floods out of concern for poor air quality resulting from possible mold in water-damaged boxes and inadequate cleaning.
As part of the discussion, the letter states that “research has found that damp building conditions can lead to respiratory illnesses in occupants,” and that “damp building conditions promote the growth of mold, bacteria, other microbial agents, dust mites and cockroaches.” It states that dampness can also contribute to the breakdown of building materials and furniture, and that occupants of damp buildings can be exposed to pollutants in the air from both biological contaminants and the breakdown of building materials.
Building-related symptoms were addressed in the letter, which indicates that “comprehensive reviews have been conducted of previous scientific studies evaluating the development of health effects associated with exposures from damp indoor conditions.” It further states, “The findings include associations with upper and lower respiratory symptoms, asthma development and exacerbation, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, respiratory infections, allergic rhinitis, bronchitis, and eczema.”
The letter indicates that NIOSH does not recommend using air sampling for mold as part of a building air quality evaluation because no health-based exposure limits for biological contamination in the United States have been set by OSHA or recommended by NIOSH. It also states that measurements are highly variable and dependent on the life cycle stages of a mold species. It states that “in many cases, short-term sampling for mold spores is conducted; however, the results might not be representative of actual exposures. Furthermore, spore counts and culture results, which tend to be what are included in indoor air quality reports, do not capture the full range of exposures.”
With regard to the findings of such reports, the letter states, “What building occupants react to is largely unknown. It can be mold, a compound produced by mold, something related to bacteria, or compounds that are released into the air when wet building materials break down.”
“We have found that thorough visual inspections or detection of problem areas by musty odors are more reliable,” the letter states.
Chief Judge John Chmura, of the 37th District Court, said any flooding at the building is addressed immediately by a commercial property restoration contractor. The most recent incident occurred during extremely heavy rain on Jan. 13. He said he was aware of the mold inspection sought in 2017, but that no employees had brought their concerns about the building to him.
“Short term, that’s the best thing we can do. Long term is we’re getting a new building,” Chmura said. “But beyond that, there’s nothing else we’re going to do because there’s got to be some proof, whatever problem they have — and again, I don’t know what they are — is caused by this particular species of mold.”
While, according to the mold inspection report, stachybotrys, or “black mold,” was identified in a sample collected in the file room in 2017, Chmura said it had not been shown that any particular species of mold was causing health problems for employees.
“I would have to have something from a doctor that says this employee is suffering this condition directly as a result of this species of mold that happens to be present in the courthouse. I don’t have anything close to that. Not even remotely close,” Chmura said. “It doesn’t make sense to spend any sort of money to get rid of a problem that may or may not exist, and quite honestly probably doesn’t exist, unless there’s some evidence to indicate that.
“We are, in a larger sense, taking care of the problem by getting a new courthouse,” Chmura said.
He estimated the cost of constructing a new court building to be roughly $20 million. The court currently has about $10 million set aside in a special building fund, accumulated through fees assigned through judgments in criminal cases over the years.
Chmura said the opening of the new courthouse could be two years away. A request for proposals has gone out, with a deadline set for next month. After that, a committee will review the proposals and select an architect for the project. Three sites are reportedly being considered: the current building footprint, land just east of the courthouse, and space to the west between the police headquarters and Civic Center Drive.
Beyond its history of routine leakiness and courtrooms that are in most cases far too small to accommodate the 37th District Court’s 21st century caseload, security remains a pressing issue. On the busiest days, county prisoners are led into the building chained together in shackles and leg irons. While under the guard of deputies, city police and armed court security officers, prisoners enter the courtrooms through public spaces filled with litigants and attorneys, not to mention friends and family members of both crime victims and the accused.
Warren Mayor Jim Fouts said the administration is in the process of reviewing building maintenance operations. He encouraged any employee with concerns about their health as it relates to a city workplace to contact the city’s Human Resources Department through its director, George Dimas.
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Damage Mold 