The CA EPA Indoor Air Quality Report, July, 2005

[Guest guest]

This input was given in Sacramento, on Mar. 17, 2005 by The Center for

School Mold Help, _www.schoolmoldhelp.org_ (http://www.schoolmoldhelp.org)

The EPA report would be very helpful in court cases, I think. Laws could

certainly be designed based on the EPA findings and derived from these

recommendations, perhaps.

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see page 357 of 363 of The CA EPA Indoor Air Quality Report

_http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/indoor/ab1173/rpt0705.pdf_

(http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/indoor/ab1173/rpt0705.pdf)

The CA EPA Indoor Air Quality Report, July 2005, Final Draft

THE CENTER FOR SCHOOL MOLD HELP

Comment: The critical importance of addressing mold issues within schools is

paramount for

this organization. Aggressively addressing the issues of mold in schools

will ultimately be more cost effective than not dealing with these issues.

School mold is a national health problem.

The recommendations presented in the report are not strong enough; strong

regulations are

needed.Guidelines become just another state document with inadequate clout.

Recommendations presented in the report should include enforced mandates and

tough

sanctions, the requirement of “Best Practicesâ€, and mandatory training

relative to indoor air

quality issues.

Speakers offered many suggestions for mandating the mitigation of mold in

classrooms.

Examples include minimum exposure standards for mold, biological toxins and

their interplay

with chemical toxins. School districts could use unannounced facility

inspections, issue an

environmental report card, and regional agencies could issue a stiff penalty

for inadequate

conditions. School funding should be contingent upon following good air

quality standards.

Speakers recommended that the state conduct research on the systemic health

effects of longterm

exposures to biological toxins in order to set minimum exposure standards

for children and

adults. The state should create a “Child Environmental Protection Agencyâ€.

The state should

fund SB732 to set mold standards for school buildings and institute

mandatory regulations

related to mold and water intrusion promptly.

Witnesses provided testimony of personal experience in severely water

damaged classrooms

with resulting illness and the loss of their quality years of life. School

districts meet their

complaints with the three Ds – defensiveness, denial, and discrediting.

Response: Thank you for your support of our report. We agree with most of the

suggestions you offer; however, there is a lack of regulatory authority to

enforce existing

guidelines and “Best Practicesâ€. As indicated in Section 4.2.3 of the

report, the

Department of Health Services (DHS) is the lead state agency for addressing

mold

issues. They have a draft report undergoing internal review regarding the

feasibility of

identifying permissible exposure limits for indoor mold, pursuant to SB 732.

DHS is also

conducting research on how indoor microbial growth affects human health. The

Centers

for Disease Control (CDC) just started a large project to investigate how

microbial

growth affects human health. We agree that more actions should be taken, and

are

working cooperatively with nonregulatory programs such as the EPA Tools for

Schools

VI - 6

program, and school environmental health departments to implement

recommendations

from the California Portable Classroom Study.