Residents Evacuated Due To Toxic Mould Building Owner May Face Prosecution
By Marshall Allen and Gary Scott, Staff Writers
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, California, April 4, 2003

PASADENA -- City officials ordered 111 people 49 of them children to be evacuated from the Cinema 21 apartment building this week, after learning the building was contaminated with toxic mould.

As they were moving out of their studio and one-bedroom apartments, children played in the dilapidated halls while their parents scrambled to gather possessions and motel vouchers for what city officials said could be weeks away from the building.

Several third- floor apartments at the 38-unit Cinema 21, located in the 800 block of E. Washington Boulevard, were evacuated in February, after rain poured through the building's rotten ceiling and dripped through its hallways. Some apartment doors still bear the sticker: DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE TO OCCUPY. After the rains city officials ordered the building's owner, Norman Furman of San Diego, to repair the roof. Those repairs are still being made.

A preliminary report on the building's health conditions was done in part because of the wetness, said the city's Chief Prosecutor, Connie Orozco, a member of the City Resources Against Slum Housing team. Two moulds Aspergillus and Stachybotrys are present in the building, according to the report, Orozco said.

Exposure to the moulds can cause various ailments, including allergies, infections and respiratory problems, according to health experts.

Though the level of contamination is unknown, the report recommended the building be evacuated immediately, Orozco said. A final report is expected Monday, and the CRASH team then will decide when residents can return to the building, Orozco said.

Five-day motel vouchers were provided to the residents by the Ecumenical Council of Pasadena Area Churches. The group's executive director Frank Clark said he's "never seen a building that bad in the city of Pasadena.'

Despite the fact that the paint is peeling, the carpets are filthy, the light fixtures are falling and the building smells, the residents have made it home, Clark said.

"When you go into the individual homes, you find articles of their faith, clean dishes and the beds are made,' he said.

City Councilman Victor Gordo, who represents the area, said the evacuation, which started Wednesday and concluded Friday, should send a "strong message to this and any other landlord' who lets a building fall into a similar state of disrepair.

"They either better get on top of the situation and do the right thing by improving living conditions or turn the building over to someone who will,' Gordo said. "If they are not willing to do that then the city will be forced to take the action it took this week. Either do it, or get out of the business.'

City officials should have evacuated the building long before the rains came, said resident Ladonna Woodley.

"I've been to the city several times and they never did anything,' Woodley said. "Now, they don't have a choice.'

The situation is being investigated and Furman, who's owned the building for about 20 years, may be prosecuted because of the conditions, Orozco said.

"This really is the landlord's responsibility, but we're stepping in to make sure (the residents) are well taken care of,' Orozco said.

Furman did not return phone calls.

Questions & Answers about Landlord Liability for Mould Problems

Q. Are you aware of any state or environmental laws that require office buildings to be mould free? We have recently moved back into our downtown office after the tornadoes that came thru Jackson, TN. last month.  June 15, 2003   

A. There are no federal or state environmental laws that require an office building, home, or any other building to be mould-free. Landlords do often have a state law legal obligation to provide habitable housing to their tenants. Your attorney can probably make a similar argument as to office buildings, that the landlord owes an obligation to provide safe environmentally-safe office space to tenants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and most state EPA agencies consider serious mould infestation in the work place to be an EPA health and safety violation
by an employer.        

[June 12, 2003]        

Q. My family and I have been renting a 3 bedroom townhome/apartment for about 5 months now When we first moved in, I noticed that there was a foul, moldy odor under the kitchen cabinets, primarily where the sink is.  Sometimes the smell is so strong, that you can smell it upon entering the kitchen/dining room area.  The landlord and I looked at it upon moving in, and she did say that the pipes had been leaking previously, and that she had someone to look at it before to fix the problem.  We noticed that the pipes underneath still leaked.  When I looked closely under the cabinets, I saw patches of black spots closely together, that looked like mould.  We contacted the landlord again several months later, and she sent someone out.  He then replaced a rubber ring under the sink, however said that he could do nothing about the mould, except to put lime on it!!??? I have become so annoyed with the smell and the problem, that I don't even want to go into my kitchen anymore.  I have just started looking up information on black mould on the internet, and I am alarmed by what I am finding out! I did not know that this could be potentially dangerous to my family and I. My question is, does the mould that I have described to you sound like toxic black mould, and if so, what should we do about this problem, and our landlords non-caring attitude about it?     

A. Take a sample of the visible mould using the Scotch tape lift tape sampling technique explained on Mould Mart and send it to our mould laboratory for mould analysis and mould identification. You can also use mould test kits. You are very wise to be concerned about possible health damage to your family. Slow, continual leaks like under your kitchen sink are perfect conditions to grow the most dangerous of all moulds---Stachybotrys which can destroy the brains of your family members. Even if the mould is not Stachy, any mould in elevated levels indoors can cause health problems according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Most landlords will not voluntarily spend the funds required for effective mould inspection, mould testing, and mould remediation. After you get back mould test results that document the mould health problem your family is facing in the apartment, you may have to hire an environmental attorney to persuade your landlord to carry out the landlord obligation to provide habitable housing for tenants.  Make sure your landlord does the mould removal properly and safely by learning all of the steps required for effective mould remediation. If you cannot get your landlord to take care of the problem properly, you may need to move as soon as possible to a mould safe place for your family.      

[March 15, 2003]      

Q. In our building in West Hollywood, we all have mould in our apartments (bathroom, carpet, kitchen, etc.). I have been living there for  4 years and I keep cleaning but 3 days later it comes back. I didn't know anything about mould toxicity until my neighbor gave me some lecture. I just noticed that we all have (my daughter , my boyfriend and I) the symptoms associated with mould contamination. My daughter is always sick. She coughs a lot, she gets ear infection, congested nose, nausea, headaches etc... My boyfriend is getting more and more asthma attacks and besides all the above symptoms myself I have my eyes always watery and a blurred vision. I am getting worried and even if I clean which takes me approximately 5 hours of strenuous work, it keeps coming back. I keep calling the maintenance because the wall of the bathroom keeps crumbling because of a leak and every time, they just plaster the wall. One week later, the water stain reappears on the wall and slowly starts to crumble. Lately, we have an unbearable smell coming from the patio I think it is a broken pipe. I would like to know if the landlord is responsible for the decontamination of his building because I heard it was expensive.           

A. Under most states' laws, residential landlords owe a duty to their tenants to provide habitable housing. Living in mould infestation is certainly not living in habitable housing. You can call your local city building inspector and ask him or her to check out your apartment for building code violations like mould infestation. You can also hire a mould lawyer to demand of your landlord immediate professional and safe mould remediation. You can also do your own mould testing to document the existence of a mould contamination problem to help either the building inspector or your lawyer to take action against the landlord. Visit: Mould Mart  Because most landlords will not honor their duty to provide habitable housing when there is mould present in the apartment, your safest course of action to protect your family's health is to move out immediately to a mould safe place to live while the building inspector and/or lawyer go after the landlord. If the apartment is mould remediated, you would have to move anyway because you cannot safely be in the apartment while the mould is being removed. To learn what is required in effective mould remediation, please visit: Mould Removal. Landlord Liabilities.

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