Two employees sue Ohio State University over building condition

From The Columbus Dispatch: Two Ohio State University employees contend in a lawsuit that they were exposed to a fungus that causes a lung disease while they worked at offices in Hitchcock Hall. Olga Stavridis and Amy Franklin say they contracted histoplasmosis last spring when workers used fans to blow air through the contaminated ceiling of their office suite to dry it out after a water leak. They say university officials knew the space above the ceiling had been infested with birds, bats and mice and that their droppings can carry the fungus. NOVEMBER 2009...from The Columbus Dispatch: Two women who work in the same office at Ohio State University in Columbus became ill with a fungal disease that attacks the lungs. The university is relocating College of Engineering employees who work in a suite on the first floor of Hitchcock Hall. And the university is bringing in a contractor that specializes in testing for the disease, called histoplasmosis. One of the women who became sick says a ceiling tile from her office has tested positive for the fungus that causes histoplasmosis. The woman's office and adjacent offices flooded in March, and university maintenance workers and a cleaning contractor opened up the ceiling tiles and ran box fans for the next several weeks to make sure everything dried.