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About 12 now listed in puzzling hair loss
By CRAIG PITTMAN © St. Petersburg Times, published August 17, 2000 ST. PETERSBURG -- At least a dozen employees, most of them women, have lost their hair while working at Equifax Payment Services' office on Roosevelt Boulevard, a federal official involved in investigating employees' complaints said Wednesday. On Tuesday an Equifax spokesman told the St. Petersburg Times that only three of the building's 2,200 employees have complained about mysterious hair loss. But officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have "a sheet of names with at least 12 people on it" who have suffered from hair loss, OSHA's Tampa area director, Lawrence Falck, said Wednesday. "There may be a lot more who just don't want to talk about it," Falck said. "There are both men and women involved, but predominantly it's women." The agency received several calls from other current and former workers in the building at 11601 Roosevelt Blvd. on Wednesday after the Times reported OSHA is investigating the possibility of environmental contamination, he said. A company spokesman said Tuesday that the three employees who filed the original complaint in March all worked in the same area of the building, which contains about 500 of the company's 2,200 St. Petersburg office employees. Attempts to reach Equifax for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful. Greg Ouzts is not an Equifax employee, but two years ago, he spent three months doing computer consulting work at the company's Roosevelt Boulevard building. He said he ranged all over the building during that time. He had a beard then, but after three months inside the Equifax building, he said, "I noticed I started having patches come out." He shaved off the beard, but even now, those areas of his face will not grow hair, he said. Ouzts said he consulted his doctor, who could find no medical reason for the hair loss. One Equifax employee lost more than a few patches of hair. According to Cheri Staley-Wilson of Cheri's Unique Boutique in St. Petersburg, the woman required a full wig. The woman declined to speak to a reporter. Equifax Payment Services, one of Pinellas County's largest employers, occupies a 300,000-square-foot building in St. Petersburg's Gateway area. A part of the largest check verification company in the world, Equifax moved into the building in 1995. Before Equifax's move, the building was occupied by Honeywell's military avionics division, which produced navigation systems for missiles and military aircraft. OSHA officials have been looking into the possibility that the hair loss resulted from some contamination dating back to the building's previous occupant. Honeywell officials did not return calls seeking comment, but Falck said Wednesday that Honeywell officials say they got a clean bill of health from an environmental check before they moved out. OSHA also is looking at the possibility of contamination from the nearby Toytown landfill, which accepted municipal waste from the 1960s to the early 1980s. However, Pinellas County officials say they know of no leaks from the long-closed landfill. "There's a lot of unknowns, and it's going to take a lot of investigation," Falck said. "So far, with all the testing that's taken place, no cause has been found." After employees filed the initial complaint in March, Equifax officials called in a consultant to test the building's air quality and check for radiation. The results of those tests were negative, a company spokesman said Tuesday. "There was no indication of any problem," Equifax spokesman David Mooney said. "I don't think they realize the extent of the problem," Falck said Wednesday. - Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story. Craig Pittman covers environmental issues for the Times and can be reached at craig@sptimes.com or at (727) 893-8530.
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