Judge awards $.7m for sick-building syndrome

A FORMER public servant has been awarded $700,000 in damages for an illness caused by dust while she was working at the Ministry of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprise Development.

The award was made in the San Fernando High Court on Thursday by Master Martha Alexander in a case of Legionnaires disease. Commonly known as sick-building syndrome, the illness is caused by a bacteria from droplets from an air-condition unit or dust, which results in a form of pneumonia.

The employee, who requested anonymity, said in 2009 she fell ill while working at the ministry’s offices in Melbourne Street, Port of Spain, She was a clerk and the building was old and dilapidated, such that health authorities had condemned it as unfit for human occupation.

In her lawsuit against the ministry for negligence, filed by attorney Asaf Hosein, instructed by Emile Pollard, she said she suffered allergies, breathing problems and chest pains. She cited dust falling on her, breathing elevated levels of carbon dioxide and a lack of ventilation, as causes for her illness.

As she continued to work there, she said, sores developed throughout her body in 2010.

Other workers fell ill, resulting in them sending a memo of complaint to the human resources manager. The woman cited Dalkeith Ali, director of human resources services in the ministry, as one such person she complained to.

Hosein submitted on her behalf that when doctors in the public health sector refused to test his client for Legionnaires disease, she consulted public health specialist Dr Balkaran Shivnauth. He diagnosed her with sick-building syndrome.

The State accepted liability, and Alexander assessed the damages. One of the factors Hosein asked to be considered, is the Occupational Safety and Health report in May 2010 in which the building was listed as one with a number of health violations.

The State was represented by Svetlana Dass and Tinuke Gibbons-Glenn.