“Miners once used canaries to detect poisons in the air. It seems like we are the canaries now.”
— Kevin Siewars, Local 436

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Pregnant women still schedule checkups and recovering addicts continue their counseling at the Ida B. Israel Clinic in Coney Island, Brooklyn. But the Health and Hospitals Corp. refuses to end the tragedy of errors that harms the health of employees and the public they serve.

“Miners once used canaries to detect poisons in the air,” said Kevin Siewars, one of the clinic’s nurse practitioners and a United Federation of Nurses & Epidemiologists Local 436 member. “It seems like we are the canaries now.”

It’s been months since the Emergency Room at Coney Island Hospital documented workers’ complaints of puzzling but serious medical symptoms. DC 37 has demanded that HHC relocate members and move the clinic out of the toxic site.

“We have serious concerns about the risk to health at this site,” states a May 16 letter from Dr. Stephen M. Levin of the renowned Mt. Sinai Center for Occupational Medicine. Based on his findings, Dr. Levin recommended that “employees be transferred from the facility until the environmental problems are identified and remediated.”

On May 15, DC 37 lawyer Audrey Browne filed a step 3 group grievance on behalf of DC 37 members in Locals 371, 420, 436, 768 and 1189; Local 1549 also filed a group grievance. The cases will be heard together. Union reps visit the site frequently to talk to members and monitor the situation. “If there is a scintilla of doubt,” said DC 37 Deputy Administrator Zachary Ramsey, “HHC should err on the side of caution and pull the 36 workers out.”

HHC’s response included roof repairs, revamping the ventilation system and testing the leased building’s air quality for “75,000 different chemicals and contaminants,” all with inconclusive results. But the workers are still getting sick.

In late May, the building’s landlord tarred the clinic’s roof during operating hours. The fumes were so intense that patients and workers had to be evacuated by the Fire Department. A few days later, the landlord resumed the repairs, this time at 4 p.m.— with the building still occupied by the clinic’s staff.

“My life is totally disrupted, my social life is cut in half because I have no energy and I’m sick all the time,” said Arlene Lippel, a counselor and Local 371 member. “The symptoms don’t go away.” Since January she’s been rushed to the Coney Island Hospital Emergency Room three times and Employee Health Services six times.

Asher Beard, a young Buildings Service Aide and Local 420 member, said he never needed asthma medication before, “but now I don’t walk without it.”

HHC claims the complaints are unsubstantiated and says the workers just don’t like the clinic’s Neptune Ave. location. The clinic sits in a notorious dumping ground on the banks of a toxic creek, while Coney Island Hospital uses its former site for other purposes.

“When we were first told the clinic was going to be relocated to this site, nearly half of those reassigned left because they knew about the building’s problems,” said Clement Sullivan, a Sr. Rehab Counselor. “We are not disgruntled employees. There are more conveniences here — like easy parking — than at the hospital.”

The State Health Dept. will meet with officials from HHC and the hospital to investigate complaints on June 22, said Barbara Ingram-Edmonds, DC 37’s director of Field Operations. She added, “The union is aggressively pursuing a plan of action to ensure our members’ safety.”