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| Title        : abc7news.com: Medical Mystery At SF Police Station        |
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| File name    : 5.23.05 abc7 Medical Mystery At SF Police Station.txt     |
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| Create date  : 15-Jul-2006                                               |
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Medical Mystery At SF Police Station
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Several Officers Diagnosed With Vertigo
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May 23 (ABC7) -- What's making police officers in San Francisco's Chinatown
sick? So far five officers have come down with vertigo, and all of them work
in the city's central station located along Vallejo and Powell. The cause
may have something to do with the substation's location.

The central police station is in the middle of it all. It's right on the
edge of Chinatown and North beach, areas full of young energetic people and
fun seeking tourists, especially on the weekends. But all this excitement
could be the station's biggest threat.

Gary Delagnes, police union president: "If you've got five officers
diagnosed with this illness from one district station there's obviously
something else going on. I think it goes beyond the realm of coincidence."

Five officers from central station have all come down with vertigo in the
past month. According to their supervisor, at least one tested positive for
carbon monoxide in his blood.

Gary Delagnes: "It's serious. It really does incapacitate you. They pulled
one of the officers immediately off the streets. He was out for 10 days."

None of the officers at central wanted to talk on camera, but several tell
ABC7 they think they know exactly where the problem is coming from: The
five-story parking garage above the station and the garage across the
street. On the weekends, idling cars jam Vallejo Street waiting to get in or
out of the garages. Police suspect their building's old air system is
sucking in that exhaust and circulating it for them to breathe.

We checked with an occupational medicine specialist who said he has never
seen five people diagnosed with vertigo from the same office space.

Dr. Thomas McClure, California Pacific Med. Center: "Very unusual in my
experience, but given the proximity to parking garages and congestion it's
certainly plausible there's a carbon monoxide issue."

The city installed monitors to test the air over the weekend. Those results
aren't expected for another week.

There's been a plan and funds earmarked for a new central station for years
and the cops don't know why they're still here, if it's money or politics,
but they do know what they're next move will be if carbon monoxide is to
blame.

Gary Delagnes: "We're certainly not going to leave our officers in there if
we believe there's a health risk. We're going to demand from the union
perspective that they're out of that building and put somewhere else."

Meanwhile, fans are in place to move the air around. The officers will
continue to try and co-exist in this popular, and possibly dangerous,
congested area.

Last Updated: May 24, 2005


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