Response from the state health director for North Carolina about Peak Fitness in Clayton

angelmom1@nc.rr.com (Clayton NC's Real Estate Angel) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:40:41 GMT

I think this is important enough for everyone reading the unsanitary conditions at Peak Fitness. I had sent Leah Devlin who is the state health director a link to my blog and video, here is Leah's response.

I have heard from our state epidemiologist who is an infectious disease specialist. He indicates that there is no scientific evidence that mrsa or other infections are transmitted in fitness centers.

I have also seen the memo from the department of environment and natural resources in this regard.

Based on the scinec around transmission of disease,
we have no plans to develop inspection services in fitness centers. As you might imagine, there are a number of different ideas that members of the public have concerns about and want us to regulate. We have to stick to the scientific evidence as our standard since there is no other way to focus limited resaources to have a real impact on health.

Thank you for expressing your concerns. Please feel free to ask any other questions you might have about any other health issues.

Leah devlin
"Sent via BlackBerry."

And my response back to Leah:

Thank you for your response. And yes I can just imagine how many members of
the public contact you like I did about concerns and wanting you to regulate
them. I am not a specialist in the field of infectious diseases. But I do
appreciate and thank you for taking the time to speak to someone that is.
I'm sure you won't mind if I post your response on my blog. And once again,
thank you.
Phyllis

PLEASE NOTE: Comments Positive and Negative are welcomed - anyone else care to comment?

Unsanitary Conditions at Peak Fitness Clubs in Clayton NC

angelmom1@nc.rr.com (Clayton NC's Real Estate Angel) — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:11:41 GMT

Every year more and more people join a gym to get into shape! That's what I did, I joined Peak Fitness Clubs in Clayton. Well when I joined over a year ago we had a cleaning woman by the name of Linda. She did an excellent job of cleaning the gym every night, top to bottom. Then Phillip the general manager was transferred to Charlotte and all of a sudden Linda was gone.   New staff was transferred/hired and Peak Fitness Clubs of Clayton started to go downhill.


                                                                                                                       View you tube video of Peak Fitness

Meanwhile, I was still going 5 days a week and as my workout intensified, I started to shower at the gym. Well, the showers were dirty, one of the white plastic shower curtains was actually ripped in half and all the shower curtains had mold on them.  I would clean the shower before I used it and obviously started to complain about the filth. Well, the general manager Jason O'Brien took my complaints as a joke. So I contacted WRAL 5 on your side. Well once Jason heard about WRAL the showers were cleaned up right away. And for about a week they stayed that way. Then the cleaning stopped and it is now worse then ever.
I spoke with Jason a few times after that and got absolutely no where.

My last conversation with Jason O'Brien was several weeks ago. Before I worked out I sat down with him and told him I come to the gym for stress relief not more stress. I told him do something about the filthy conditions in the ladies locker room and elsewhere in the gym.  I told him if he didn't have it cleaned I would be forced to go to the board of health. Jason told me go right ahead, for me to do whatever I wanted!

The kicker here is there is a book at the gym I have seen it. It has instructions in it on how often every thing should be checked and cleaned at the gym. The shower curtains are supposed to be sprayed at least once a day and they never are! The bottom of gym equipment is loaded with dirt. None of the cleaning rules in that book are ever followed.

So I started with the health depts in the town, which included environmental health, health and human resources and public health.  Then went to the county and then I finally went to the state. The town and county employees said no on site inspection could be performed because food wasn't served.
So I contacted Leah Devlin who is the state health director for North Carolina.   Well, Leah had one
of his employees call me back, and surprise, surprise "there are no rules or laws on sanitary conditions at fitness centers in North Carolina". Of course, I sent Leah another email regarding the conversation with his employee and he was going to follow up and email me back. Well, that was almost a month ago, so we are seeing how much the state director of NC cares about the publics health if it is affected by these conditions.

Here's what really gets to me............
I brought this example up to Leah Devlin's employee and she confirmed it!

Someone could work out at Peak Fitness Clubs in Clayton and contact a contagious disease and they don't even know they have it yet. Then they can go to a tanning salon, nail salon and hair salon and restaurant and spread this disease.  The state can then shut down all of those places that person went to and spread the disease and never shut down the gym. Not even fine the gym. Reason: Because it is not the town, county or state's job to inspect the gym to begin with.

And ultimately, it's you that suffers the most.  As the public your health, as the business financially when your business is shut down.

And funny isn't it how the tanning, nail and hair salon doesn't serve food but are inspected by the state of North Carolina.

I am hoping to hear from a lot of people on this blog. And I hope so. Negative and positive comments are welcomed. And for those of you out there that are saying, just give it up and go to a different gym, I could and eventually will, BUT it's the principle now. So I will continue to workout & clean the shower I use at the gym, and hopefully the state (yes Leah you) as well as the corporate office for Peak Fitness and it's partners will receive enough pressure and complaints from the public, myself, internet broadcasting thru my blogs, media contact and my websites and they will resolve this problem.




                         www.nchomesbycallahan.com
                    www.claytonncrealestateangel.com
                    www.realliving.com/phyllis.callahan
                         www.youtube.com/angelmom1

Clayton NC Online News

Response from the state health director for North Carolina about Peak Fitness in Clayton

Unsanitary Conditions at Peak Fitness Clubs in Clayton NC