nothin The Courthouse Made Them Sick | New Haven Independent

The Courthouse Made Them Sick

Paul Bass Photo

UI crew at work.

In response to complaints from its workers, the state judicial department is working with United Illuminating to stop sending fumes and ear-splitting noise into the Elm Street courthouse.

Workers on the first, second and third floors reported getting red eye, nausea, and headaches from diesel fumes and vibrations in their office once UI dispatched a private crew to start excavating an electrical vault from below Church Street right next to the historic 1914 state courthouses eastern flank.

The Blakeslee Arpaia Chapman crew began the work in December. It is expected to continue through February.

As soon as the noise and fumes began seeping into the building, workers began reporting feeling sick.

Bevin Salmon in his office next to the construction site.

Bevin Salmon, supervising attorney in the courthouse’s first-floor public defender’s office, came downstairs from court at lunch time one recent day to find several workers with headaches. He developed his own headache before lunch was over. Several workers had to go home.

It was continuous,” he said of the noise and fumes.

Courthouse workers complained to their union AFSCME Local 749. Local President Charles DellaRocco visited the courthouse last week. I could smell the diesel,” he said. The air was dry, and the building was noisy. Some people had nose bleeds. Some went home.”

A team from the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) came to inspect the building, according to Department of Labor spokeswoman Nancy Steffens. She said the investigation is ongoing, so she can’t release details about it yet.

Meanwhile, the Connecticut Judicial Branch has taken several steps to help, according to department spokeswoman Rhonda Hebert. It has:

• Covered windows and air conditioning opens with plastic sheets to seal openings.
• Turned off ground-level fresh air intake fans at the construction site.
• Used portable air filtration units and other equipment to raise the humidity.
• Met with UI, which agreed to install risers on the exhaust pipes of their equipment in order to direct the exhaust streams higher, which will allow fumes to disperse more quickly”; and, when feasible, to perform work on weekends and to minimize equipment idling when possible.”

Hebert said the department also hired the firm Fuss & O’Neill to assess indoor air quality, which she said revealed no deficiencies” beyond relative humidity below the recommended range of 30%-60%.”

As work proceeded outside Bevin Salmon’s plastic-sheeted window during lunch hour Tuesday, the air was comfortable enough, the noise minimal.

It looks crude,” he said of the sheeting, but it’s very helpful.”

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