One Family's Story

This is the story of the physical, emotional and financial torment my family and I suffered because of fiberglass contamination. The threat of serious future health problems loom over us, particularly our little boy and girl.

JANUARY, 1996
I rushed Mimi to the hospital because she felt dizzy to the point of passing out. Her OBGYN feared Mimi would lose the baby. A nurse connected her to an IV and we stayed more than four hours before they discharged her. All during her pregnancy, Mimi had problems, much unlike her pregnancy with Michael.

JUNE, 1996
On June 15 Danielle was born, by Caesarian. Two days after Mimi's discharge, she was rushed back to the hospital with a kidney infection and acute edema. She came home two days later, with plenty of antibiotics. Never before did she have any problems with her kidneys. Again, we chalked it up to a complicated pregnancy.

JULY, 1996
We started to itch. We thought we had fleas, though we don't own any pets. It seemed logical. The summer was wet, we lived on the ground floor, and the woods were 50 yards from our front door. The itching got worse and I called management to ask whether anyone else had complained about fleas. No, they stated, but if the itching continued, they would fumigate the apartment.

By the end of July, the itching was unbearable. Michael had rashes on his stomach. Danielle constantly scratched at her eyes; her breathing became labored and congested. Mimi started feeling dizzy and had small bumps on her scalp. I itched and felt dizzy. A fitness buff, I worked out with weights and jogged four miles a day, three to five days a week. I noticed a marked decline in my aerobic capacity. That is not supposed to happen at age 37. We attributed our symptoms to fleas.

AUGUST, 1996
Michael's health got worse. Dark circles formed under his eyes, he lost his appetite, lost about seven pounds, complained of being tired all the time, his legs ached, his ears and nose "tickled" (as he described it), and he started losing coordination. He even fell asleep at the dinner table. Mimi and I became distraught, thinking he might be showing early signs of MS.

Mimi took him to the doctor, where they performed blood tests, throat cultures etc. No problems were identified. Mimi kept telling me something was wrong the doctors weren't finding. I thought she was overreacting, yet I itched so bad I didn't want to work, felt dizzy and started to get depressed... a first. All of us itched and barely slept.

SEPTEMBER, 1996
During the first week of September, management fumigated the apartment. It didn't help. Our symptoms became worse, requiring more trips to doctors, more bills and more worries. Our personal doctor prescribed Quell, antihistamines, lotions and more. He was treating us for parasites! We even bought Nix at the store. That was very embarrassing; I knew most of the people at the check-out line. Nothing helped. Most frustrating was not being able to identify the cause. The naked eye can see fleas and lice. After a process of elimination we knew we didn't have lice, scabies, fleas or crabs.

The logical answer was mites. We contacted many sources, including the Florida Department of Agriculture. All evidence pointed toward the chigger mite: which can't be seen with the naked eye, thrives in moist climates, and whose bite inflicts its hosts with many ills.

OCTOBER, 1996
We thought we could see light at the end of the tunnel. We arranged for management to fumigate the house a second time. The exterminating company refused to spray, saying Maryland law required them to be able to see the pests. Mimi and I argued. He left, made a phone call and came back, saying he would perform a "general" fumigation and spray the building's perimeter. Within two days, they sprayed and fumigated the apartment. We were told it takes a few days for the chemicals to kill any parasite. A week later, we still itched, and decided to steam clean the carpets ourselves, to rid our apartment of all the chemicals.

While we thought we had chiggers, we furiously cleaned and washed ALL our clothes daily. We scrubbed the floors, the bathrooms... everything. At night, just before going to bed, we would rub ourselves down with Avon "Skin So Soft," because we heard it repelled bugs. In the morning we would bathe, reapply the lotion, and then put the clothes we were to wear in the dryer for 20 minutes, thinking the heat would kill any parasite on them. Nothing worked. We still itched and felt sick.

A week after the second fumigation, I told the apartment manager the spraying didn't do any good; we needed someone to help us. She stated management could do no more; they were referring the matter to their law firm. I begged her for help. When I said I intended on calling the County Health Department, she replied, "Do what you have to do."

The State and County Health Departments didn't do anything, until I mentioned we had mice, which may have made their way into the ventilation system. Whenever we turned the heat on, we itched, I added; maybe the mice had chiggers on them. They had to come out and inspect.

NOVEMBER, 1996
By the second week of November, the itching was so bad we stopped sleeping in the bedroom. The four of us slept in the living room, on blankets. The routine was:

1. Douse our bodies with Skin So Soft.
2. Put the blankets and sheets in the dryer for 20 minutes, along with our pajamas.
3. In the morning, do the whole thing all over again.

Deprived of sleep, Mimi and I started to really get on each other's nerves. I couldn't function at work. I had converted the den into a private office, so most of my work I did there, unless I had to meet clients, which I basically stopped doing because I didn't want to spread to them what I thought I had.

Mimi started to get lesions on her scalp. At the suggestion of our family doctor, we took her to the hospital for a thyroid test, thinking maybe an imbalance was the culprit. Wrong. After that, all of us went to a local dermatologist. He couldn't explain the sores on Mimi's head. All he could say was that whatever it was affected the whole family. He wouldn't do a biopsy.

One morning, without a notice, a Baltimore County inspector, along with the property manager, the owner of the pest control company, and the head of maintenance, knocked on our door. We let them in. The inspector opened a vent in the hall bathroom, and saw mouse droppings. The droppings were old, he said, because they were hard. I laughed, adding, "Any droppings, human or otherwise, will be hard after weeks of having hot air blowing on it." The pest control man started giving orders: all parties would wait until I sent slides of what we thought were chiggers (but ended up being fiberglass particles), to the oncology department at the University of Maryland. Within moments, they left.

Mimi and I knew that when we turned the HVAC on, we itched worse. That night, a light bulb went off in her head: if Dorothy, the property manager thought we had chiggers, surely she would not have leaned against our cloth sofa. Why was Dorothy so uneasy when the inspector opened the vent? Mimi saw the glistening particles.

We opened a vent, and I wiped my fingers inside. When I examined my hand under the light, I saw shiny, yellow particles. Mimi called her uncle, who has been in the construction business for years. He told us to shut off the HVAC system and tape all the vents... what was blowing through was fiberglass. Immediately after the phone call, I taped everything, got on the Internet and searched for fiberglass contamination. It led me to Bob Horowitz and the Victims of Fiberglass.

We were horrified, but we finally knew to what we had been exposed for months. The following day, I started interviewing Certified Industrial Hygienists (CIH) to test the HVAC system. Finally, I found forensic engineer Steven Rogers. Then, I bought space heaters to warm our 1,750-square-foot apartment.

An amazing thing happened once we shut off the HVAC system: our itching and symptoms were gone after one week! All of us looked and felt better, especially Michael.

DECEMBER, 1996
Steven Rogers came, accompanied by a CIH, and started inspecting our apartment. To be thorough, he had to get into the furnace room located on our patio. Only management has the key, so he called the rental office, introduced himself and told them his intentions. Within five minutes, the head of maintenance arrived, and allowed Steve to examine the room... under escort.

Steve found fiberglass dust in the ducts and furnace returns, building code violations and mold. He advised us to decontaminate the unit with a HEPA-filter vacuum and get out.

On Dec. 2, I sent my landlord a certified letter, telling him I intended to file for a Rent Escrow Hearing. On Dec. 5, I filed. On Dec.10, Mimi and the kids moved out. Though we had done everything Steve Rogers advised, she didn't want to risk further exposure to our children. I stayed because all my computer and phone systems were in my converted office. Alone, separated from my family, I decided to fight back as hard as I could.

I wrote to President Clinton, Maryland's two U.S. Senators, the Governor, his aides, the head of the Maryland State Health Department and county officials. I hoped to make the politicians answer my letters and create enough stink so that political favortism couldn't bury it. My hopes were crushed. Whenever I mentioned my landlord's name, most backed away. However, I did get a response from the Governor's office, and that forced the County Health Department to come back out.

JANUARY, 1997
I received in the mail a notice from the Circuit Court to appear Jan. 21, as the plaintiff in the Rent Escrow Hearing.

On Jan. 9, totally unannounced, two inspectors came to my apartment with management. They stayed for an hour, concentrating on mold, insisting our symptoms were due to anything but fiberglass. Before they left, I pointed out the building code violations in Steven Roger's report.

The week before my court date, more people connected with my landlord appeared. Along with the property manager came the owner of the heating and plumbing company which did all the work on the property. An hour later, the maintenance staff cleaned the mold with bleach and removed debris from the furnace room.

On Jan. 19, I was greeted at my door by my landlord's attorney, an Industrial Hygienist, the property manager and the head of maintenance. I let them in. I asked the Hygienist if he was certified. He told me he was not. I asked if he intended to test the HVAC system. "Yes," he replied. When I asked what standards and protocols he would use, he gave me a blank look. Meanwhile, everyone was parading around the apartment. The attorney tried to convince me the landlord really cared; his demeanor turned from pleasant to arrogant when I disagreed. I called my attorney and Steven Rogers. Within five minutes, Steven Rogers called back and asked to speak to the attorney, whom he knew. He told the attorney to get out because I was given no notification he would be there, denying me the right for my attorney to be present. The attorney refused to leave, so I let him stay, under protest. But I did take out my video camera and started recording. All left moments later.

On Jan. 21, my attorney and Steven Rogers accompanied me to court. The landlord's attorney came in with seven witnesses, none relating to the case. He gunked up the court, telling the judge he needed at least four hours to hear the case, asking for a special court date. My lease was up Feb. 1. A court date afterward would be moot.

FEBRUARY, 1997
We now live in a different community and are trying to put our lives back together. We know others from our old community have suffered from similar problems. We intend to sue, and have no intention of settling or signing anything out of court. If we can save the life of just one person, all our pain would not have gone down the drain.