Former interns suspect mould at U of O museum made them sick
University says air quality tests at now-closed museum found no health risk
For weeks, Tara Ward experienced odd symptoms she could not explain.
There were the headaches, the coughing, the feeling of perpetual tiredness. At first, she thought it might be the flu. Then came the throat and eye infections.
"I was in bed most of the time," she said. "It was actually the worst."
The mystery symptoms persisted. That's when Ward and her fellow interns found what appeared to be mould on artifacts at the University of Ottawa's little-known Museum of Classical Antiquities.
"We started finding ceramic pieces that looked like they had mould on them. Whenever we took them out, the entire office started to smell," she explained.
"The next indication came when we started finding white mould spores. They were fuzzy."
Ward, a graduate from the Algonquin College's museum studies program, started working at the museum in January 2019 and began experiencing symptoms soon after.
She wasn't the only one.
Radio-Canada spoke with two other former interns who said they saw mould in the museum and experienced symptoms such as nausea, headaches, respiratory problems or infections.
Symptoms similar to mould exposure
One of them, Catherine Raileanu, started volunteering at the museum in 2017. She eventually had to interrupt her studies due to her health issues.
"I would often get really bad headaches, I was exhausted all the time, I would catch every flu that would come. My immune system was just completely down," Raileanu said.
"If you left the museum for a few weeks, it would disappear. But the second you came back, you'd start getting symptoms again."
A third student who spoke to Radio-Canada on background, but declined a formal interview, also said she had health issues while working at the museum.
She alerted the museum's curator in an email in February.
"The amount of mould that we are finding in the collection is a growing concern," she wrote. "The mould looks inactive on its surface but there is a smell which would indicate it is still active."
The intern then wrote a detailed report addressed to the University of Ottawa, saying six of the 12 students who worked at the museum when she was there had symptoms consistent with mould exposure.
CBC News has seen both the email and report but has not been able to independently verify those figures.
Air tests showed no risk
The university declined a request for an interview.
In an email, a spokesperson did not deny the possible presence of mould in the museum. However, Isabelle Mailloux-Pulkinghorn said the university acted rapidly and conducted air quality tests.
"The results of the analysis revealed no health risk," she wrote in a French-language email, adding the people who worked at the museum had all been informed of the test results.
Mailloux-Pulkinghorn mentioned the university had recently been informed that the matter was in front of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.
"The Board has not contacted the University yet, but if it does, the University will offer its collaboration," she wrote.
Source hard to establish
The three students interviewed are all convinced their symptoms were not from a virus.
"Usually the flu lasts for a [few days]. But here, it just continued," said Raileanu.
She went to the university health clinic several times and was told her symptoms were similar to those of mould exposure, although she wasn't formally diagnosed with the condition.
Ward was prescribed antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory and an inhaler, but also wasn't given a definitive diagnosis.
Montreal-based microbiologist Christian Jacob could not determine whether or not there was mould on the artifacts solely based on pictures.
He said the presence of a damp smell is usually a good indicator of mould presence, adding the university was right to conduct air quality tests.
When spores are inhaled, it can lead to a variety of different symptoms in different people, he added.
Museum now closed
The museum on the third floor of the university's Desmarais Building abruptly closed this spring.
The university said it was because its faculty of arts wished to "revise its role and mission."
Meanwhile, the Embassy of Greece in Ottawa and the Canadian Museum of History, which both loaned artifacts to the museum, said they had not been aware of the shutdown.
"[We take] issues related to the preservation and security of its collections very seriously," wrote Canadian Museum of History spokesperson Patricia Lynch in a French-language email.
Many of the students who experienced symptoms were students from Algonquin College's museum studies program. The school did not want to comment on the matter for "privacy reasons."
"However, the work environment is fully the responsibility of the placement employer as per the Occupation Health and Safety Act," noted spokesperson Ruth Dunley in an email.
As for Ward, she now works in Sudbury's Northern Ontario Railroad Museum.
Her symptoms have disappeared, she said, since she left Ottawa.