Photo by Ted Soqui

Wanda Cherry was among the first to move into the long-vacant
Borax building on Wilshire Boulevard. A supervisor for the county’s Child Protection
Hotline, Cherry and her team started work while construction crews were still
hammering nails, putting in partitions and pulling out old carpet and tile.

“They were tearing down walls, doing all kinds of things,”
said Cherry. “All the workers had masks on.”

The nine-story Borax building allowed the county to consolidate
its 24-hour-a-day hot line with other services for endangered children. And
county administrators got a deal on the rent, so good that they grabbed a 10-year
lease, and didn’t balk even when the landlord insisted on a contract with no
escape clause.

Less than a year later, in early 2000, Cherry felt continually
exhausted and weak. She figured she had the flu. It turned out that she’d contracted
Legionnaires’ disease, and it nearly killed her. Since then, she’s suffered
from deteriorating health that eventually prevented her from working.

Cherry’s among 23 of 680 county employees in the building who’ve
sued the building owner over alleged exposure to Legionnaires’ disease. The
building owner, Jamison Properties, denies any wrongdoing. The workers also
sued the county, but a judge ruled that the county’s share of liability should
be handled through the workers’-compensation system.

Legionnaires’ disease achieved notoriety after an outbreak killed
34 and infected more than 200 American Legion conventioneers in Philadelphia
in 1976. Despite that scare, researchers eventually concluded that the disease
rarely threatens healthy people with strong immune systems. But it’s a serious
danger to people with other health problems.

The county has confirmed one case of Legionnaires’ — presumably
Cherry’s — but also insisted that it’s inconclusive whether the building was
the culprit. And it’s possible that it wasn’t. But an inspection in 2000 by
Cal-OSHA, which oversees workplace safety, turned up high concentrations of
Legionella bacteria throughout the water piping, including in the roof’s
cooling tower, which is part of the air-conditioning system.

Cherry’s attorneys said they’re prepared to present evidence
that other employees, too, were sickened by Legionella as well as by
toxic mold, which they also claim to be in the building. An attorney for the
building owner asserted very nearly the opposite. “We’ve seen all the medical
records and that indicates there’s no basis for any claim,” said Michael
McEvoy. “And there’s no existing health hazard. It’s safe to work in that
building.”

The case is a classic in the sick-building genre. Building owners
and some county officials seem convinced that nothing other than mass hysteria
has swept through the building. Yet dozens of workers are absolutely sure that
the building is harming their health, if not outright killing them. And it’s
hard to see what anyone could do to make them truly feel safe while working
there.

“We’re wondering what’s going to happen,” said Richard
Castro Jr., a union shop steward who’s also a low-level supervisor. “We’re
fearful of working here. We’re asking for immediate testing of the building.”

In response to recent public rallies that began last month, the
county has agreed to a comprehensive evaluation, but Castro, for one, doesn’t
want to wait out the results. He’s already requested a transfer to another work
site. Other workers want to leave, too, though there hasn’t yet been a stampede
of transfer requests. “I have a history of bronchitis that started when
I started working at this building,” Castro said. “I don’t know if
I can trust this building anymore. I don’t know if I can trust the owner of
this building.”

THE 43-YEAR-OLD BORAX BUILDING was once headquarters for
U.S. Borax & Chemical Co., which left for Valencia in 1993. Then, the building
stood vacant for about six years. A lot can go wrong with a building that’s
empty and not closely looked after, especially within the stagnant water of
a rooftop air-conditioning tower. That’s a prime breeding ground for Legionella
bacteria, a baffling pathogen that researchers say is surprisingly common.
“Legionella is a bacteria that is ubiquitous,” said Dr. Laurene
Mascola, chief of the county’s Acute Communicable Disease Control Program. “If
it’s so widespread in the environment and so serious, how come we’re not all
dropping dead with it? The answer is that for the vast majority of people, nothing
happens. A normal, healthy person almost never gets Legionnaires’ disease.”

But minor and even serious cases, which mimic classic pneumonia,
are often missed because doctors don’t routinely check for Legionella.

Those most at risk include the elderly, people with compromised
immune systems, cancer patients on chemotherapy, organ recipients, and people
with HIV, diabetes or an underlying lung condition. About 15 percent of those
who get Legionnaires’ will die, but mortality is 80 percent for patients with
weak immune systems who aren’t treated after getting the disease.

[

Mascola noted there could be risk for anyone — healthy or not
— who suffered extreme, persistent exposure. “If you’re sitting and breathing
the stuff seven days a week and 24 hours a day, that could be a problem. With
severe high quantities,” she said, “all bets are off.” But this
caveat, added Mascola, does not necessarily apply to the Borax building. As
far as the county health department is concerned, there’s never been
an ongoing proven health risk of Legionnaire’s disease at 3075 Wilshire.

TELL THAT TO WANDA CHERRY, or several dozen other staffers,
and their reactions will range from disbelief and exasperation to anger. Before
getting really sick, Cherry recalled that she always felt cold in the building,
partly because her work area was directly in the path of vents. “I would
work wearing a coat with a hood, a hat and gloves, extra socks. I’d be shaking
at my desk trying to do my work, shaking from chills, headaches, fever.”

She finally checked into the hospital, where she remained for
about a week. Doctors tested her for everything they could think of; for a few
days, they feared she would die. Then, in desperation, they thought to check
for Legionella. And she rallied when doctors applied the appropriate
antibiotics.

Most of the alleged victims have elected to pursue litigation
rather than settle for workers’-comp claims. Their suit targets Jamison Properties,
whose general partners are David Young Lee and Hee-Sook Fung. Lee and Fung preside
over a small empire of office properties in the L.A. area. The county also rents
other properties from Jamison, and has no major issues with Jamison’s overall
performance, said Carlos Marquez, manager of lease acquisitions for the county.
It was that solid record that helped make the county feel comfortable in inking
a 10-year lease without an escape clause.

The lawsuit has complicated efforts to sleuth the chain of events
at the building. County officials say the owners have declined to release maintenance
records as well as original documentation of privately conducted testing. Attorneys
for employees are cagey with their documents, too, refusing for now to provide
employees’ medical records. Another group of employees — who are not part of
the original lawsuit — also have come forward, claiming that all 26 people examined
in recent weeks have tested positive for Legionella exposure. Still,
exposure to the virus is not necessarily cause for alarm in healthy individuals.

An expert with no ties to this case said she lets clients know
they have a Legionella issue if water-system samples are greater than
1,000 colony-forming units per milliliter, which is the measurement scale. At
least as important, however, is how widespread the Legionella becomes.
Legionella at more than 30 percent of sample sites is a concern in hospitals,
said Janet E. Stout, who directs the Special Pathogens Laboratory at the VA
Pittsburgh Healthcare System.

The building flunked by both measures.

Tests in September 2000 indicated a Legionella concentration
in the rooftop cooling tower of 2,220 colony-forming units per milliliter. Tests
in October 2000 found the concentration of colony-forming units at 840 in the
third-floor nursery, 1,120 in the lunchroom tap water and 2,820 in the seventh-floor
women’s restroom. And 12 of 20 test areas recorded positive for Legionella.
That’s 60 percent of sample sites, well above the unofficial 30 percent standard
for hospitals.

Legionella most often poses a danger when it is inhaled
via water droplets in the air, which is why air conditioners -present a risk.

After Cal-OSHA’s findings, the building owner flushed and chlorinated
the water system. Only two of 60 tests revealed Legionella in November
2000. Samples taken on two dates in 2001 were negative, though fewer than a
dozen areas were tested each time. More recent tests, commissioned by attorneys
for the employees, turned up Legionella in 28 percent of samples, below
the 30 percent standard.

Cherry and other employees filed their lawsuit in 2001. Recently,
the pace of the litigation has increased, just as the union that represents
many of the workers has begun to stage rallies.

And Jamison Properties has begun to devote attention to the building
as never before. During a recent visit, it looked its best in years, with some
freshly painted walls and shampooed carpets on several floors. The cleaners
made it in just ahead of investigators from the California Occupational Safety
and Health Administration. On several occasions, the building owner has made
it difficult for specialists in Legionella and mold to get into the building.
Just last week, building management canceled access at the last minute for a
hygienist hired by the Service Employees union.

THE COUNTY CONTENDS THAT IT’S just trying to do the right
thing. “We’re kind of in the same boat as the union,” said David Waage,
personnel officer for the Department of Children and Family Services. “Both
sides on the lawsuit have not been providing us with full information.”

[

The county was just dismissed as a defendant in another Legionnaires’
lawsuit, over 11 alleged cases of the disease in 2002 at Good Samaritan Hospital.
The families of three patients who died and three more who got sick are suing,
said William Berman, an attorney working on the case. One lawsuit had accused
county health officials of acting too slowly to contain the outbreak and of
failing to alert the public, but the court ruled that the county had immunity
from liability. The county had conceded publicly that it made no announcement
of the outbreak, but also insisted it had handled the situation properly. Good
Samaritan denies any wrongdoing and attributes the patient deaths to causes
other than Legionnaires’ disease.

In the Borax building episode, “from the beginning to today,
it’s been a wrestling match,” said Tom O’Connor, communications director
for Local 535, “with the union trying to get the county and its various
agencies to respond. The Board of Supervisors has failed categorically to protect
the health of not only the workers, but the children who come into the building.”

Employee unions also are looking into allegations that administrators
have begun to retaliate against two workers who’ve been among the most vocal
about health worries.

At the very least, county officials have consistently downplayed
concerns. One example is an October 2000 memo, circulated to staff, claiming
that the one confirmed Legionnaires’ victim “is considered to be in good
health at this time.”

“Good health” is hardly how Wanda Cherry would have
described her condition. After returning to work, she said, she had persistent
respiratory problems, and her health fell into general decline. She started
having seizures that forced her to surrender her driver’s license. She developed
an irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure. And doctors diagnosed her with
sarcoidosis, a rare, chronic autoimmune disease of uncertain origin that can
cause inflammation in the lymph nodes, lungs, liver, eyes, bones, skin, joints,
kidneys and spleen. It could be difficult, however, for Cherry to prove conclusively
that the Legionnaires’ precipitated her decline.

Cherry, who’s 51 years old, was eventually allowed to transfer
to another work site, but hasn’t worked at all since mid-2003.

The Weekly reviewed death certificates of employees who
died and found no proven link to Legionella, but then, medical professionals
do not routinely test for Legionella infection, even after death. Regardless,
nearly all of these deceased workers — about eight in number — would have been
at particular risk from Legionella, and other infections, because of
their weakened health.

Besides Cherry, the sickest workers in the lawsuit include Gloria
Cabral, who is dying of cancer, and Joel Geffen, a shop steward who helped bring
forward health concerns before falling ill himself.

To this day, experts still speculate about the source of the Legionella
that killed all those Legionnaires in Philadelphia. Likewise, the mystery
of the Borax building is unlikely to be solved with certainty. Which complicates
matters for a county bureaucracy that must make sure its workers are safe, and
then persuade them to believe it.

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.