The Department of Facilities Management (DFM) is scheduled to test an office March 10 in the Woodbury Campus Center for air quality following the hasty relocation of the office’s former occupant. Beth George, the attorney for Student Legal Services, relocated last Friday to space in the 11 Baxter Blvd., complaining that the air quality in her office made her sick.
The Student Senate discussed the air quality problems and made the decision to relocate George on Feb. 28. Leah Wentworth, chair of the senate, noted that George had been suffering for up to a month from illness due to carbon monoxide.
“There are fumes in that area of the building,” she said on Thursday. “She was concerned for her safety, and we reacted by giving her a place over here.” Wentworth expressed concern over the safety of the room, including a lack of ventilation and the possibility that the exhaust fumes from the Oakhurst trucks behind the building could be getting inside.
According to WebMD, a person exposed to high levels of Carbon Monoxide, a tasteless, odorless, and colorless gas, can suffer “headaches, dizziness, or nausea. If the exposure continues, the person may lose consciousness and even die” (http://www.webmd.com).
The senate unanimously approved a motion to move George immediately from the Student Legal Services office in the back of the Campus Center near Student Life to space in the senate building on 11 Baxter Blvd. Senator Joshua Dolby shared the room with George as coordinator of student legal services. He recommended at the senate meeting that the University be notified of the problem.
“The idea is that some cars are idling outside, and that carbon monoxide could get in through there,” said Dolby. “In general, that office is horrible. It definitely should be tested.”
USM has a protocol for air quality issues. When air quality issues arise, University protocol states that the Office of Campus Environmental Safety and Health should be contacted immediately. The protocol describes the steps that are to be taken, which include a standardized process of investigation by DFM and an escalation if problems are found. When contacted on Friday, however, authorities at DFM were not aware George’s problem.
“We had no knowledge of this,” said Ray Bland, the Assistant Director of Maintenance at DFM, on Friday. He said he had first heard about the issue about a half hour before The Free Press contacted him. He did not have air quality data specific to the room, but said there are fans circulating air into and out of the room and that the building at large is safe. He outlined the ventilation problems that he does know to have occurred in the Student Center:
“In the multicultural room, there’s a certain grill smells from the kitchen were coming through. The only other complaint we’ve had is in the bathrooms,” said Bland. “There’s an exhaust fan that has been known to stop working.” He added that the bathroom exhaust fan has since been fixed.
“It’s certainly not dangerous or toxic,” said Mike Mullett, Director of Commuter Student Services. He admitted that the office in question “gets hot and stuffy, not the most fun place to be” because it has no window. To make matters worse, “she works with her door closed because of the nature of her work.” Mullett said that the air in the building is routinely tested, and that there have never been complaints in that room before. “As soon as she’s out, we’re going to do air quality testing to make sure it’s okay.”
Contacted again on Friday, Wentworth retracted her previous stance on how long George had been sick, or whether she had been sick at all. “She approached us last week,” Wentworth said. “I don’t know when that started. I really don’t know anything.”
George did not return calls to her University or home offices.