Amityville windows

>> Woman battles to prove apartment renovations ruined her health

by CRAIG SEGALL

What would you do if you suspected that your long-time home was suddenly poisoning you to death? Just ask Nina Bode. After happily living for 26 years in a ninth floor two-and-a-half on Lennox in Cote-des-Neiges, Bode's landlord sent in renovators to install a new set of bay windows in her flat. Shortly after, she started complaining of headaches, dizziness, sleepiness, burning eyes, skin irritation, a numb upper lip, twitching thumbs and nausea. "All I know is I'm getting sick in this place. My symptoms take many hours to go away after I go outside," she says.

Bode, who describes herself as an environmentalist, suspected her new symptoms were related to a strong chemical odour caused by the installation of the new windows. Fearing that the unpleasant air might threaten her adult daughters' health as well, Bode arranged new homes for her two kids.

Firstly, Bode had the caulking around the window ripped off, but still the smell persisted. Then the treated wood around the window was gutted. But it was too late. The smell had moved in. And Bode moved out. She started to sleep in her car and at friends' homes.

Seeking proof to back up her suspicions, last month Bode paid Drasko Pekovic, Ph.D, of a company called BioMedco, $570 to test her apartment for harmful chemicals.

The test results are full of numbers followed by a little note by Pekovic saying the results "showed toxicity on the wood material as well as in the indoor air of your apartment."

Do the tests prove that Bode is being poisoned slowly by her apartment? Monique Beausoleil, a toxicologist at the Public Health Department of Montreal, said, "For [Bode's] health, these tests mean absolutely nothing."

Dr. Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Chemistry and Society, said the lab results are "mumbo-jumbo, totally. This is nonsense, absolutely meaningless stuff. If you showed me a paper that was completely written in Chinese, it would mean the same thing. Anything meaningful would have showed the toxins in parts per million."

Although her scientific data might appear flimsy and the source of the odour unclear, this reporter's visit confirmed the existence of a nasty chemical stench emanating from an unstripped area around a window. After Bode's lawyer sent a letter to her landlord demanding he locate and eradicate the source of the strange smell, a janitorial team visited, leading to what she describes as intimidating behaviour by the repairmen. Bode's landlord then called the police.

Bode is now waiting for a date with the rental board where she'll attempt to use the data to prove her suspicions of sick home syndrome to regain her peace of mind. In the meantime she says she'll keep camping in her car. "They have made me a homeless person while all along they take the rent," says Bode, who pays $427 a month.

Bode's landlord says he is ready to do whatever it takes to keep Bode as a tenant and would even install yet another set of windows. "I would change the windows if she found it was affecting her," says Jordan Aberman. "We're willing to deal with the issue. She just won't let us deal with it." :

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