Earlier Equifax testing is questioned

The latest studies show no thallium, consultants say, deepening the mystery over reports of hair loss.

By CRAIG PITTMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 26, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Consultants hired by Equifax Payment Services have found no thallium contamination in either the groundwater under the Roosevelt Boulevard building or in the air inside the office where employees have suffered a mysterious hair loss, company officials announced Friday.

The tests did turn up levels of arsenic that are higher than the state allows. But arsenic does not cause hair loss.

Testing two years ago and a few months ago found elevated levels of thallium, a poisonous heavy metal that can cause hair loss, in the water under the building. However, the Tampa consultant in charge of the latest round of tests says there may have been a problem with the testing method used, and that's why the thallium showed up then and not now.

Friday's test results deepen the mystery over what caused some of the company's 2,200 employees to lose their hair.

"We're not seeing at this point an obvious smoking gun," said Deborah Getzoff, Tampa district director for the state Department of Environmental Protection, which is overseeing the groundwater testing.

"We haven't seen any kind of data in the workplace that would show what's causing that, so what's left but stress and statistical probability?" asked Robert Hughes of ATC Associates, the consultant handling the groundwater testing.

Three Equifax employees complained to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in March that they had experienced a mysterious hair loss, prompting Equifax to test the building for radiation. Company officials told OSHA that the only radiation source they could find were the microwave ovens in the cafeteria and break rooms.

Despite the company's assurances, the complaints grew louder.

Recent tests of the soil on the 55-acre Equifax site at 11601 Roosevelt Boulevard found no sign of thallium but did turn up somewhat elevated levels of arsenic. Ingesting high levels of arsenic can be fatal.

OSHA officials investigating the mysterious hair loss, who hope to get their own test results back next week, have said they are looking at possible contamination from the long-closed Toytown landfill that sits across Roosevelt Boulevard from Equifax. They have also been looking at the building's past history.

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