#1. There have been 6 to 7 people who worked in that building who have been diagnosed and treated for cancer, 1 had lung cancer and passed away in Feb of this year. This employee HAD NOT SMOKED IN OVER 25 YEARS. Ms. Martin alluded to another employee (possibly) who did die from lung cancer 2 years ago (in a WHNT interview) and this employee was a heavy smoker. He worked in another OLD building that had been reported a few years ago because of employees having constant respiratory problems. In fact, officials were called in and this building did have sick building syndrome. Calhoun did spend money to clean it up. Why not clean up these old buildings on the main campus rather than spend so much on building up the HSV campus. If anything, Calhoun needs to be studied by the CDC as a cancer cluster group

#2. Employees would have never know about what was going on if a faculty member had not stopped to asked what a contract worker was doing in Wallace Hall. This employee, when they asked, was told that "we were instructed not to answer any questions if we were asked by an employee!"

#3. The meeting was not made public.....word of mouth spread that it was going to happen. Many key people learned of the Friday morning meeting on Monday of that week. The meeting turned very "anxious" to say the least as the room full of people began to voice that they had heard of the meeting by word of mouth that very week. There was no "invitation" by administration to come to the meeting and hear the results.

#4. The tests were "hung" in the buildings before Christmas 2011 break.....only because a group of employees had experienced a lot of respiratory sicknesses in another old building and asked via a letter to administration to please check this out. Many of these employees were once in the Wallace Building. The 2 employees that passed away in this mentioned old building had worked 15 and more years in Wallace. The employees in the building that requested the testing be started were not even called to a meeting to be informed of results.

#5. The numbers for the radon reported for Wallace were more than 3 times the base level.......that says something even if they are low.

At that meeting, employees were told by Bruce Causey from Calhoun's maintenance department that they would not be allowed access to the radon test results for copying purposes--"all that xeroxing" would be too much to deal with. Apparentl;y our administration is not aware of the national Freedom of Information Act or the state's Public Records Access Act, which guarantees access to public documents not just for viewing purposes, but for copying as well. It wouild appear that--as usual-- employees will have to file a grievance and/or a lawsuit to force the Calhoun's administration to do what they shouild have done all along.

please note that "Calhoun Library" comments are from Calhoun employees ---- from any employee that has access to our Decatur Daily provided by our Library services. Comments could come from any employee....

When were they going to let the students know as well. Many of us are in these older buildings for several hours in the day depending on our class schedule. I believe all the buildings need to be tested since radon comes up from the ground and is not a building component like asbestos is.

Please also read the story from WHNT Channel 19:

http://whnt.com/2012/09/10/radon-rumors-at-calhoun-college/

Agnes, they never wanted students to know! That is why they had the ventilation pipes installed within 2 days of receiving the results and had any pipes visible by students covered with wood and painted to match the walls. There are at least 18 pipes in the building, many in classrooms.

Correction to Calhoun Library's comment about xeroxing the results: It was said that anyone who wants to see the results can. It should not be maintenance's job to xerox 100 copies for every employee in each building. If an employee wants to see the results, they should set up a meeting with him.

There are no routine radon tests performed on either Calhoun campuses. The EPA suggests testing every two years. While there are arrangements to test every single building, they will be performing a quick 48-hour test instead of the more accurate 90 day long-term test suggested by Terrell Technical Services. Terrell also said there is no way to tell how long radon has been present in a building.

I highly recommend looking at A Citizin's Guide to Radon by the EPA:

http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/citguide.html