Yukon board, department to look into Teslin library's mould problem
Last Updated: Monday, December 1, 2008 | 10:52 AM CT
CBC News
Safety and public works officials in the Yukon say they didn't know someone was still working inside a mould-infested building in the village of Teslin.
Librarian Claudia Hubert told CBC News last week that she feels headaches and other adverse health effects from working in the library building, which has had black mould in the basement.
The local post office and a bank branch had moved out of the same building this fall, over concerns about the mould. However, Hubert said she was told by the Yukon government's libraries branch she would stay there until the spring.
"We're sending somebody down … to find out what's going on with that, because we had been informed that everyone would be moved out by now," Kurt Dieckmann, director of occupational health and safety with the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board, told CBC News on Friday.
Dieckmann said one of his safety officers found a "substantial amount of mould growing in the basement" of the Teslin library building in the fall of 2007, around the same time that a Canada Post worker raised concerns about the infestation with her employer.
In October 2007, the Village of Teslin, which owned the building, sent the post office, bank and library a letter stating that they had one year to find new locations.
Dieckmann said the building was cleaned and inspected again, but the safety officer did not follow up on the case further because the compensation board was told everyone would be moving out.
"We were informed that the building was going to be vacated, and it wouldn't be a workplace anymore," he said, adding that he didn't hear anything about the Teslin building again until CBC Radio aired a report about it on Friday morning.
"We're going to definitely follow up to find out why that hasn't happened," he added.
The Yukon government's Public Works Department, which took over responsibility for the building's maintenance on Nov. 1, also said it was unaware of the full extent of the mould problem.
"We knew that there was mould in the building, but not that there were health impacts because of it," department spokeswoman Doris Wurfbaum said.
"We were aware that she [Hubert] was working in that building. I don't believe we were aware of how ill she was, or any of the effects that she's been going through."
Officers with both the compensation board and the department are going to Teslin this week.
Post office worker Joanne Brown told CBC News that Community Services Minister Archie Lang had met with Teslin residents on Oct. 20, and assured them that a new library space would be found and the mould infestation would be addressed.
