Ex-Volunteer Sues Carmel Swim Club Over Lung Illness

By James A. Gillaspy

CARMEL, Ind. May 7. According to a story in the IndyStar an ex-volunteer is suing Carmel Swim Club for damage to his lungs caused by a faulty vent. According to the lawsuit, Toxic fumes at 4-day contest did irreversible harm. For 15 years, J.C. Davis worked as a dedicated supporter of the Carmel Swim Club, never thinking it would cost him anything more than his time. But now he is consumed by suspicions about a single swim meet, a four-day contest that might have ruined his life. In a lawsuit filed last month in Hamilton Superior Court, Davis contends that toxic fumes from Carmel High School's pool have scarred his lungs with irreversible disease.

Davis, a Northwest Airlines pilot who worries that his health problems also could jeopardize his career, seeks at least $600,000 in compensation from Carmel Clay Schools and the private club that used the pool and scorer's table where he sat by a corroding grated floor vent during four 14- to 16-hour shifts.
School officials won't discuss his complaint, which claims Carmel Clay failed to warn users of an "inadequate and dangerous vent system" and the club failed to ensure a safe environment.

Swim Club directors reject the claim. "There were many volunteers through the years that worked in the same general area . . . that have not suffered any injuries," said attorney Bernard L. Pylitt, board secretary and legal counsel in the case.

"The club obviously denies any wrongdoing or creating any health problems or issues for Mr. Davis." Davis said the onset of his ailment came with his swim club service in June 2004, when he developed coldlike symptoms that soon worsened.

"It's been going on for two years," said Davis, who learned in September that he suffers from interstitial lung disease and won't recover from trauma that destroyed lung tissue and left him with throat irritation, labored breathing, a persistent cough and bouts of vomiting.

For a while, Davis said, physicians even thought he had pulmonary fibrosis, a diagnosis that had him preparing for death. Davis, 55, suspects he incurred the damage by inhaling chlorine fumes from the floor vent where he manned a computer, logging swimmers' times.

"I was very involved," said Davis, who had continued to volunteer after his daughter left the program years earlier. "I ran every swim meet they had, from the computer aspect."
Davis, who flew fighter jets for 21 years, said his regular medical fitness exams as a military and commercial pilot never detected a lung problem before his June 2004 Swim Club duty.
"What was different this time was at the end of the first day, I had kind of a sore throat," recalled Davis, who had sat by the vent at previous contests but said none involved such prolonged duty or so many contestants.

"By the end of day three, I was having trouble talking. And by the end of day four, I couldn't talk. I thought I was coming down with laryngitis. After the laryngitis kind of went away, I would start to cough at night, and then I would cough where I was throwing up all the time. . . . I thought I had some type of pneumonia."

In March 2005, his doctor diagnosed pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive disease that is fatal. By September, the lack of new damage led to a new opinion.

"He said, 'Have you ever been exposed to some type of chemical?' " Davis recalled, a question that reminded him of the swim meet and a conversation he had with a lifeguard at the pool.
Davis said the lifeguard, a former Carmel High School student, told him on the meet's final day that the floor vent was likely to blame for his sore throat and laryngitis. According to Davis, the young man explained that it had become a common practice at school swim meets to cover the grating with towels.

He also claimed, Davis said, that the hole in the floor used to be covered by a solid plate, and that the grate was installed after a buildup of air pressure blew the lid.
"Somebody should be out there testing it," said attorney Jason R. Reese, who represents Davis' legal claim and suspects that whatever corroded the grate also attacked his client's lungs.
"It all relates back to that four-day period, and his doctor said that could do it."

Carmel Clay officials declined to answer questions about the floor vent or whether they have investigated any concerns that the pool posed a threat to users' health since its opening in 1998.
"We've just been advised that we shouldn't comment at this time, because of the pending litigation," said Carmel Clay Director of Facilities Ron Farrand.
L&W Construction owner John Wisel, whose Carmel-based company built the high school pool, said Davis likely was sitting over the pool's surge tank and may have inhaled irritating gases from chloramines.
The mixing of chlorine with sweat, body oil or urine can produce the noxious chloramines, which Wisel said can multiply fast with heavy pool use.
The surge tank is where pool overflow collects when such use causes the water level to rise. The surge, which is stored in the tank, carries the same chloramine gases that rise from the pool when there is inadequate treatment or ventilation.

"If you run 200 or 300 kids through a swim meet, it's possible within two or three hours for that combined chlorine level to shoot up real high," he said, adding that contest officials might find it difficult to interrupt a swim meet to make adjustments needed to reduce chloramines.
Wisel, who has built 200 public indoor pools in the past 30 years, also noted that floor access to surge tanks is typically covered by solid plates, such as the one he recalls being installed in the Carmel pool. He didn't think there were any grated floor vents in the pool when it opened eight years ago.
And a buildup of chloramines, he said, "definitely corrodes everything metal" and could create enough pressure in the surge tank to lift the access lid to vent.
"I can't think of any other opening in the floor that would be there," he said.

Wisel said chloramines have been a problem with indoor pools since ventilation standards were revised 20 years ago to conserve energy and cut costs, an opinion that is widely shared by pool industry experts.
The problems began to swell in Indiana after 1993, when legislators adopted a new energy conservation law and schools began to modify pools and practices.
The new pool standards touted by contractors replaced the common ventilation process, which had constantly fed fresh air into pool environments while exhausting pool air outdoors.
The new direction took the air exchange rate for pools from 100 percent day and night to as low as 20 percent, vastly reducing the cost to heat incoming air. Dehumidification systems, such as one at Carmel, also were added.

Working together, the systems were supposed to prevent a pooling of chloramines gassing into the air. Instead, Wisel admits, the industry has had problems.
"It saved a ton of money at the expense of air quality," agreed John Diercks, a former Lawrence North High School swim coach who fought to overcome chloramine pollution he linked to changes at the Wildcats' pool.
Diercks said he argued with industry experts for four years, claiming that stinging eyes and irritated throats caused by chloramines were due to poor air quality, not water chemistry.
He said the new ventilation scheme at Lawrence North had reduced fresh air intake to about 20 percent for school hours and provided no fresh air at night.
After boosting the air exchange to 29 percent 24 hours a day and adding ultraviolet lighting as a newfound tool to break down chloramines, the problem disappeared this year.

"I had an incredible battle," said Diercks. "I had engineers telling me I didn't know what I was talking about. . . . I knew what I was talking about."

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