Two Ohio State University employees said they have contracted the same lung problem and that their working environment is to blame, 10TV's Jeff Hogan reported.
Ohio State University on Monday launched its own investigation into Hitchcock Hall the building that two employees said made them sick.
In March there was a water spill in the building.
"There was quite a bit of water on the floor it flooded the whole area," said OSU maintenance worker Matt Gillenwater. "We installed fans carpet fans, box fans to dry it out. To prevent any mold from growing."
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Ohio State officials said they had the area inside the building tested for mold and that the tests came back negative.
What else might have been growing is at issue for the two women who worked there, after they both contracted a lung disease called histoplasmosis.
They declined interview requests, and the university declined an on-camera interview, but called it a medical mystery, Hogan reported.
"Well it's not a mystery to us - two women in the same office that have been diagnosed with histoplasmosis within a month of each other," said lawyer David Schroyer, who is representing the women.
Schroyer said a previous mice infestation may be to blame, because their droppings can contain spores that over time break down.
"It's their droppings that contain the spores that eventually, as that deteriorates over time,
they then get released into the air," Schroyer said.
As both sides continue to investigate, Ohio State has ordered a specific test for those
spores, Hogan reported.
"The question that we need to investigate is whether or not testing should have been done before put box fans up in an area that hasn't been accessed for many years and start blowing debris around," Schroyer said.
University officials said renovation is scheduled for that area of Hitchcock Hall and that they will start as soon as soon as they have a temporary location to house the employees.
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