Mold in Lawton School Forces Classroom Closure

[Guest guest]

http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=976192 & pic=none & TP=getarticle Mold in Lawton school forces classroom closure 2003-01-22By Mac BentleyThe Oklahoman LAWTON -- Several classrooms at Eisenhower Junior High School deteriorated badly in the two years since an air quality test for mold was taken, according to test reports. Only one classroom out of 21 rooms and areas tested in February 2001 was considered severely contaminated because of mold. One other was deemed moderately contaminated by Occupational Safety and Health Consultants of Bixby. But the most recent testing of six classrooms found five severely contaminated. The school system shut those six classrooms last week and on Tuesday shut the other eight classrooms that make up the seventh-grade hallways. "In the process of trying to identify what we needed to do to remedy the situation in those six classrooms, the company we brought in thought maybe the air ducts carried contaminants to the other eight rooms," Lawton schools Superintendent Barry Beauchamp said. "Rather than wait to do the testing, we decided to clean and remediate those areas." When testing was done two years ago, none of the rooms indicated the presence of stachybotrys chartarum, also known as black mold, considered toxic and feared to cause health problems. The six classrooms most recently tested all included stachybotrys chartarum, and in very high levels in four of the rooms. The presence of airborne mold spores in those four rooms was five times higher than accepted levels as prescribed by the Environmental Protection Agency, and stachybotrys chartarum accounted for more than 60 percent of the contaminants in those rooms. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the extent of danger presented by mold and fungi is unknown. Stachybotrys chartarum and other molds can cause varying symptoms and there is not a test that proves an association with the mold and a particular symptom, according to the Centers for Disease Control Web site. People sensitive to mold may experience symptoms such as nasal stuffiness, eye irritation or wheezing. Some people may have more severe reactions to molds. If mold is found in a building, the Centers for Disease Control recommends it be removed. The World Health Organization says an association between toxic mold and disease is possible, but conclusive evidence in humans has not been shown. The testing company said there is no standard for acceptable levels of microorganisms in indoor environments. The report used guidelines proposed by the EPA, which allows 300 CFU/m3 (colony forming units per cubic meter). The four worst rooms tested had 1,497, 1,843, 1,555 and 1,802 CFU/m3. Eisenhower Junior High School was built in the mid-1960s and has an enrollment of about 1,400 students in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades. Beauchamp said the testing was done at the request of school staff members. "There's been a lot of sinus issues and so forth," he said. "They felt like it was mold and asked us to do air quality testing." Beauchamp said there have been several complaints since the school system permanently closed Garfield Elementary in October 2001 because of extensive mold. Lawton has tested some schools where teachers and staff thought there was a mold problem but the schools turned out to be clean, Beauchamp said. Beauchamp knows some schools have fallen into drawn-out battles with mold. Sometimes the source is difficult to determine. "Obviously that's the worst-case scenario, that it is extended through the building," Beauchamp said. "The remediation process is pretty drastic in this area, we're down to replacing the Sheetrock. But there's no indication it's in any other areas."