The Social Security Administration issued a press release today stating that its Ironton office will be closed after today and will not reopen until a new facility, under construction now, is finished.

Carmen Moreno, regional communications director for the SSA, said although there is no health danger, the discovery of new mold in the office, located at 405 S. Third St., has caused the agency to close the office to the public and its employees, effective immediately, as an act of an “abundance of caution.”

“We had said all along that if there was something new we would address it and we found something new and we addressed it,” Moreno said. “The best way to do it was, the new office is going to open in November, so we closed to office effective today and our employees are working within the commuting area of other offices and we will return to the Social Security office in November.”

The new facility will be located at 611 Vernon St.

For more than two years, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3448, the union representing employees at the Ironton SSA office demanded that the facility be closed due to mold problems, stating that employees in the office have been getting sick and also have filed worker’s compensation claims.

The union also issued a press release about the closure.

“Employees at the Ironton Social Security office have had to work in a building infested with mold for more than two years, and many have developed eye, throat and respiratory irritations. We’ve been fighting with SSA management to get this facility shut down for two years. Although we are pleased the agency has taken notice, it’s a travesty that employees have had to suffer through two years of breathing mold-infested air due to inaction by SSA leadership,” said Dave Sheagley, president of AFGE Local 3448. “The mold created an unsafe work environment and put the employees and the public whom they serve at risk.”

Sheagley and Rick Hanna, vice president of the union will hold a press conference with Danielle Nameth of Senator Sherrod Brown’s office outside the closed office at 9 a.m. Tuesday.