GlobalTox at it again!

December 19, 2004

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Tuesday, December 7, 2004

Mold at Hale High leads to tests and repairs

Stained ceiling tiles, other water damage addressed by district

By _DEBORAH BACH_ (mailto:deborahbach@...)

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Aspelund considered Hale High School the perfect choice for

her son, North -- it had a nurse and it was close to a hospital, important

considerations for a child with ongoing complications from cancer.

But she pulled 16-year-old North out of Hale recently, fearing that his

compromised immune system could be put at risk because of mold at the North

Seattle school. North was diagnosed with leukemia at age 4, relapsed four years

later, then endured a bone marrow transplant and the removal of a cancerous

kidney. (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/photos/photo.asp?PhotoID=55632)

Ducey / P-I Aspelund took her son North Aspelund Jr., 16, out

of North Seattle's Hale High School because she feared that his

compromised immune system could be put at risk by mold at the school. North has

battled leukemia since age 4.

" Here you have this kid who's got special needs in with all this mold, "

Aspelund said. " Had we known there was mold in there, that would not have been

a

choice that we would have taken. "

Aspelund said she contacted the district in the fall after noticing an odd

smell in the school library. District officials ordered a consultant to take

air samples and test for mold in several locations, and conducted

walk-throughs at the school, said Seattle Public Schools Risk Manager

Staudt.

Ceilings in several classrooms have visible signs of water damage and mold,

Staudt said, and tests detected the presence of several types of mold.

An area above a northeast stairwell contains Stachybotrys atra, a

greenish-black mold that typically grows on material with a high cellulose and

low

nitrogen content, such as paper or gypsum board, in areas with condensation or

water damage.

A report prepared for the district by toxicology consulting firm GlobalTox

said air tests showed no signs of Stachybotrys but detected strains of

Aspergillus, a more common type of mold, at lower levels than are typically

found

outdoors.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, numerous types of mold are

found in homes and buildings and do not typically pose a serious health risk.

But people with chronic respiratory problems or those exposed to large

amounts of mold in occupational settings may be more sensitive and can

experience

severe symptoms, such as fever or difficulty breathing.

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99A) Both Stachybotrys and Aspergillus, which produce potentially harmful

toxins under certain conditions, create a risk of pulmonary infections that can

spread to other organs, the CDC advises.

The GlobalTox report recommended no further testing at the school.

" Air sampling data cannot be used to determine the risk of potential health

effects of mold spores, and therefore, this sampling does not provide any

additional information to help determine the need for response, " the report

concluded.

During a presentation to the Seattle School Board last week, Chief Operating

Officer Mark Green said the district replaced more than 700 water-damaged

ceiling tiles at the school when it got a new roof last year, and removed mold

where it was found, with the exception of the problematic stairwell. The area

was not easily reachable, Green said, so the mold was covered with shellac

to contain it.

Staudt said the district will now replace tiles in that area, as well as in

an audio booth in the school's radio station, and in three classrooms on the

second floor over the winter break.

Loose tiles in another classroom will be replaced, he said, and the area

between the ceiling and roof will be inspected to determine the extent of the

mold growth.

" Depending on what's found, we'll make a further decision on what our next

steps should be, " Staudt said.

State Rep. Maralyn Chase, D-Edmonds, went on a recent walk-through at the

school and said she was shocked to see missing ceiling tiles and water stains.

" This is disgusting, " she said. " We would not allow an apartment house owner

to maintain his property in that condition. We have standards for everything

except our school buildings. "

Letters have been seen sent out to Hale staff and parents, advising them

about the testing and repairs. Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Patti Spencer

said district officials are developing plans to be proactive about detecting

mold and leaks at district schools. Those will involve inspections of older

schools, procedures to notify the district's maintenance department about any

mold or water problems, and a review of backlogged work orders, she said.

" As always, resources are a challenge, " Spencer said. " It's always a

tradeoff between money for classrooms and teachers and books and curriculum,

and

balancing that with how much we spend on maintenance. "

Seattle-King County Public Health has advised that the mold does not

represent a health problem, Spencer said.

That explanation does not satisfy Frisino, who teaches language arts

at Hale. Frisino previously taught for more than a decade at Hamilton

International Middle School in Laurelhurst, and said that during that time

she developed respiratory problems that her doctors attributed to mold.

Frisino, who said she had no pre-existing respiratory conditions or

allergies, transferred to Hale last fall in the hope of alleviating the

problems. But by mid-September, she said, she was experiencing familiar

symptoms --

swollen nasal passages, inner ear pressure, coughing and tremors.

On Nov. 22, Frisino said, she started coughing severely and became dizzy

during a lesson in her second-floor classroom. She was rushed to the hospital

and is now off work, taking medication to open her lungs. Frisino said she

hopes to return to school after the work is done over the winter break.

" This is very difficult, because this is the second time I've had to leave

my students due to the conditions of the environment of the school, " she said.

, a health and environmental investigator for Seattle-King

County Public Health, said mold is present in virtually any building, and

students likely get a larger dose walking to and from school than they do in

class.

Home is often an even worse culprit, he said.

" If they have wall-to-wall carpeting in their home, there's a larger

reservoir of mold there than what they're going to get at school, " he said.

Mold should only be a starting point when gauging air quality,

said. Pollens, vehicle emissions and dust create high levels of pollution, he

said, and schools contain a host of other problematic agents -- airborne starch

from paper products, dust, particulates from cleaning products, bacteria

caused by damp environments.

" All these things add up, " he said. " I think if one were to look at the

spectrum of pollutants in a building, mold, unless it was actively growing in

the

building and a fair amount of it, would represent one of the minor threats. "

But Croft, a Wisconsin medical pathologist who has studied indoor

pollutants for more than two decades, said Stachybotrys and other molds can

produce mycotoxins -- poisons designed to protect the mold's food source from

other fungi and bacteria.

Mycotoxins are released in spores that become airborne and are inhaled. The

toxins can affect the immune system, Croft said, and at high levels of

exposure can be fatal.

Though Croft said a school would likely not present an acute health risk to

healthy children and adults, he advised parents to look for possible symptoms

of mold exposure. Those may include asthma, allergies, fatigue, nausea and

depression, he said.

, a toxicologist and executive director of the Shoreline-based

Children's Indoor Environmental Health Society, said much still remains

unknown about the health effects of mold. European countries are much further

ahead in researching mold than the United States, he said, where funding is

often based on political pressure.

" There's no money for it, " said. " If you did some studies on

viruses or bacteria, you may be able to develop a new medication. But if you're

looking at household mold and the impacts on people's health, are you going to

be able to market something to the world?

" Probably not. So drug companies aren't looking at it and the federal

government isn't looking at it. "

P-I reporter Deborah Bach can be reached at 206-448-8197 or

_deborahbach@..._ (mailto:deborahbach@...)

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