Document p2e2JKg3wkpNMKpYM3e68pOZj

f Oakland, CA (Alameda Co.) Tribune (Cir. D. 165,413) (Clr. S. 183,341) ? v JUL 16 1982 New Renaissance store now bars customers, conducts business from the front door. Tribune photo by Roy H. Willumt worKers By Abby Cohn and David Tong ; Tribune Stall Writers j At first, employees at New Ren- j aissance Glass Works in Oakland , blamed it on a bad case of the flu. ' But the colds, nausea, bloody ur ine and skin rashes persisted. On some days in December, only ; a handful of the business' 22 workers ' showed up for- work. Others got scared and quit. , Now, the owner of the stained glass shop and her- workers fear they have found a cause' for the mysteri ous ailments. They believe their warehouse-style building at 5-151 Broadway is contaminated, possibly with toxic PCBs- They are accusing the California Occupational Safety and,Health Ad ministration of dragging its heels in an investigation of the problem. A Cal-OSHA study in March con cluded that the PCBs -- suspected of causing a variety of ailments -- posed no health hazard. The toxic chemical was found in one of several fluorescent light fixtures that over heated and burned late last year. "I think what they found scared them and they didn't want to go any further,'' said Lenny Woolfenden, a 24-year-old shipping manager at the store. See MYSTERY, Back Page/ PCB-ARCH-EXT0378343 | Mystery----------- i Continued front Ppge A-1 A separate Cal-OSHA investiga tion is continuing. State environmen tal experts were scheduled to return to New Renaissance today. ' But Thursday, only four workers remained at the shop. Owner Dianne Laney laid off her remaining five employees Tuesday when a private firm she hired found seemingly high levels of PCBs in the dust inside the building. Her Salt Lake City-based consul tant told her Monday the dust sample she had sent contained PCBs in con centrations of 400 parts per million. Federal guidelines require that any PCB level over 50 parts per million be' cleaned up immediately. As soon as she got the report, Laney notified the Environmental Protection Agency, Cal-OSHA and other agencies that there had been a "toxic spill" at her business. She has barred any customers from entering the shop since Tues day. All sales of the multicolored stained glass sheets and Tiffany-style lamps at New Renaissance are con ducted at the front door. A placard has been placed at the entry, reading: "Due to environmen tal testing we have had to close our building to the public. We will be happy to help you from the door." When reached Thursday evening, Store owner Dianne Laney Suspects presence of PCBs In shop a Cal-OSHA official said he was un familiar with the case but would in vestigate immediately. ``Tliere's obviously *someth}pg drastically wrong here,''.said"JHclfaid Wade, chief of the agency's health division. Wade doubted, however, that the levels of PCBs were high enough to cause the illness. The agency report ed a 281-parts-per-million concentra tion in the fluorescent light. % , - An official at the Utah firm hired some work surfaces. But he said by Laney declined to comment blood tests on the workers later Thursday on his study, saying tha t showed no high levels of the sub anything between an employer ani stance, which is sometimes used in the firm was privileged information stained-glass work. - But OSHA's Wade questioned the - The investigator said he at first accuracy of the dust sample. suspected carbon monoxide poisoning Still, he said such a level of con from the leaking heater. But he noted tamination probably would produe that the illnesses continued after the nothing worse than a skin rash. ; furnace was dismantled. Laney and at least two other Because it found no hazardous ex workers said they'd experienced such posures, Cal-OSHA suggested that the rashes. - t case be turned over to state or feder Laney, 37, traces the problems 19 al hygienists on a consultation basis. the overheated fluorescent lights and But Laney and others complain ' the gooey black material that dripped that the Cal-OSHA investigator failed * when they were removed. to take tests of any other light fix The fires were just one of several tures or the material that dripped bizarre incidents at the shop. Other from them. * , problems included a leaking gas fur^ "We called OSHA repeatedly to nace and broken underground pipes look at this dripping, to see if it could that have buckled the cement floor. account for all our symptoms," La Laney, who rents the building, ney said. said she has removed all the old light PCBs have been placed1 in light fixtures and replaced the furnace. fixtures, electrical transformers, " Still, the illnesses have continued, television sets and other equipment she said. to help conduct electricity. . ' , [Currently, twq pf her workers The chemical has been jinked to have pneumonia, and others are suf- ' everything fpom s)dn rashes to liver fering from nausea, bladder infec disease. Jn 1979,: the EPA barred its.* tions and viral-type infections. further production. ' ~ In its report, Cal-OSHA said sam Laney s eyes welled up and her x ples of the air turned up no signs of voice got shaky several times during v PCBs. an interview Thursday. The investigator who wrote the She called thu last t?6Len months^ report said he found traces of lead on a "nightmare.'! / /* - t PCB-ARCH-EXT0378344