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FSU Sandels Building Closed - Serious Health Issues

squiffynole

Ultimate Seminole Insider
Sep 19, 2005
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Tallahassee
Oh my, this sounds very serious. Sandels is a 1950's building located just up the hill to the east of Stozier Library, this is the one with the beautiful greek theater stage and wonderful green on its backside.

The local paper is saying FSU closed it on January 9th after a report written by faculty members listed "serious health concerns," including harmful air quality, possible chemical exposure and "extremely high and unsafe" levels of radon and black mold. They say five faculty members and three former graduate students who worked extensively in the building were diagnosed with cancer in the last decade three of them have died.

A horrible irony is that the building was home for the College of Health and Human Sciences. My heart goes out to everyone.

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/n...y-report-radon-mold-cancer-deaths/9228872002/
 
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Yeah pretty bad stuff. My major was in Sandels. I probably had 8 classes in there I’d say. Never felt particularly old or outdated but I’d def be worried if I was a professor who spent every day in there for years.
 
Very bad. Glad they shut it down but why did it take 8 close cases and a decade?
Sounds to me like somebody (or somebodies) dropped the ball big time. What with all the personal injury lawyers out there I expect FSU will face multiple lawsuits on this, assuming even half of what I've heard is true.
 
Sounds to me like somebody (or somebodies) dropped the ball big time. What with all the personal injury lawyers out there I expect FSU will face multiple lawsuits on this, assuming even half of what I've heard is true.
Buzzards will eat almost any carcass, but these still strike me as difficult cases. Despite the odd/concerning statistics around this building, there would still be significant causation challenges. Then sovereign immunity. Then (maybe) workers’ comp immunity for the professors. But, yeah, the buzzards will still swoop in. And sometimes buzzards clean up big messes.
 
Sounds like deferred maintenance and that could be a liability. I think government buildings have fairly well established guidelines but the maintenance and inspections are only as good as the person(s) performing the tasks.
Wait, are you saying that some state bureaucrat with his/her pension already vested might be less attentive than maybe circumstances required? I would be shocked.
 
Buzzards will eat almost any carcass, but these still strike me as difficult cases. Despite the odd/concerning statistics around this building, there would still be significant causation challenges. Then sovereign immunity. Then (maybe) workers’ comp immunity for the professors. But, yeah, the buzzards will still swoop in. And sometimes buzzards clean up big messes.
Should be covered as an exposure under comp unless they’re going to deny there was exposure.
 
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Was vicious the first couple of months. At least I was on the side of the building with the big windows and I was up high room 812. It was nice in the winter to be able to open the windows. I think Salley and some others had there windows bolted shut so it always felt stuffy in there in the winter with the heat on.
 
Was vicious the first couple of months. At least I was on the side of the building with the big windows and I was up high room 812. It was nice in the winter to be able to open the windows. I think Salley and some others had there windows bolted shut so it always felt stuffy in there in the winter with the heat on.
Smith hall, first floor, 1969-70 school year. Wasn't bad, heat rises. :D
 
Heat rises for sure but we had a decent breeze 80 feet up.

The west side had the small one window you could open and the east side had basically the full wall of widows that opened, never understood why. Buddies of mine on the first floor west side had it rough.
 
Heat rises for sure but we had a decent breeze 80 feet up.

The west side had the small one window you could open and the east side had basically the full wall of widows that opened, never understood why. Buddies of mine on the first floor west side had it rough.
4th floor west side....
 
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