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Leaky Ducts Fill House with Fibers;
Youngsters Contract Lung Disease
Youngsters Contract Lung Disease
By Robert Horowitz
Problems affecting Kathy Markel, her two children, her parents and her sister started in 1992, when Knauf fiberglass was blown into the parents' home near Tampa, Florida. At the time the insulation was installed, a contractor used a plaster-like substance known as mastic to seal the duct system.
Soon after, everyone living in the home began noticing a strange white dust, which was persistent even after cleaning. The children, then aged 2 and 4, became sick, as did their grandparents and Mrs. Markel's sister. Kathy and her husband were living in a nearby apartment, and left the children with their grandparents for prolonged periods while the couple worked.
The children suffered many infections of the respiratory and sinus systems, severe irritations of the skin and eyes, and a persistent, dry, barking cough. Occasionally, the coughing of family members became so bad it caused blood in the saliva. That was accompanied by some glaring psychological changes in the house occupants, noted by Kathy.
"I thought their behavior was really weird," she recalls. "Everyone was acting really fatigued. Emotionally, they all seemed worried. Everybody lost weight."
After eight months, the house was so dusty they called the contractors back. The technical staff told the Markels the mastic did not hold, that fiberglass was entering the living area through the heating/air conditioning system, that the system was creating a venturi which was sucking in the fiberglass, and that the system was contaminated. They sent the mastic team back in for another repair attempt. After spending about one day trying to fix the system using mastic, the contractor acknowledged the system was beyond repair, and agreed to replace the system at no cost to the Markels.
The Markels hoped this meant the end of their problems, but two weeks after the work was done, it seemed the dustiness was as bad as ever. This time the contractor would not agree to examine or repair the system.
Although the contractor told the Markels it had replaced the entire heating/air conditioning system, said Kathy, in fact they had left some 25 feet of the old, contaminated ductwork, which recontaminated the new system.
The Markels began looking for a cleaning company which would be able to clean the ducts and remove all the fiberglass from their house. But the price for a complete job was more than $10,000, which the Markels did not have. They considered getting a loan to have the work done, said Mrs. Markel, but since nobody would guarantee the house to be clean when they were done, opted against that. Also, the $10,000 would not cover the cost of replacing the contents of their home.
"We were in a no-win situation," she says.
A vegetarian trying to raise healthy children, Mrs. Markel became increasingly despondent. Both of her children were diagnosed by a physician as having reactive airway disease. The doctors called an environmental services company to the Markel's house to test the air. According to Kathy, they reported people should not be living in the house.
Neither child had breathing difficulties before their year-long exposure to fiberglass insulation, according to Kathy Markel. They still cough a lot, both use inhalers like any asthmatic. The Markel children also use a nebulizer at their home, sort of a hand-held humidifier which dispenses a medicated mist.
Of course, Kathy worries about the cancer issue and what problems her children may have in the future. At this point, however, she does not want to put her family through a trial. Her parents are still working with the contractor to fix the home, and are finally getting through to the principals.
"Everybody can't be bad. They're working with us. The problem is not fixed, but we trust this gentleman," said Kathy Markel. "We just want it fixed. The papers show that they goofed. They should fix their mistakes. We don't want more than we lost. "
The children no longer spent much time indoors when they visit their grandparents. Cleaning only seems to stir up more dust. Kathy's parents and her sister continue living in the home, and suffering respiratory ailments, allergy-like symptoms and skin irritations. According to Kathy, her parents are "physically ill and emotionally drained."
