Strange stench at school traced to tunnels

[Guest guest]

Strange stench at school traced to tunnels

Meghann M. Cuniff

Staff writer

December 28, 2006

The Spokesman Review - Spokane,WA

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=8272

The case of the mysterious stench at a Sandpoint school appears to

have been solved.

An inspector with the state department of public works blames the

musty, moldy smell that's permeated Farmin-Stidwell Elementary

School since early November on the dirt-floor utility tunnels under

a portion of the school.

The air pressure in that crawl space is pushing the smell of mold

spores up into the building, causing the stench to waft through the

halls and explaining why school employees report the odor appears to

move around the east wing of the building.

School officials had suspected from the start that the crawl space

was the culprit, said Dick Cvitanich, superintendent of the Lake

Pend Oreille School District.

A report from Elaine Hill, school safety project manager for the

state public works department, says the 600-student school is safe

to occupy but that a number of steps needs to be taken as soon as

possible to stop the smell.

Hill's report calls for janitors to examine the school's ventilation

system for defects and hire a professional engineer to evaluate the

system for ways to change the air flow in the east wing. Four large

exhaust fans are to be installed in the utility tunnels that will

keep the air in the crawl space rather than flowing through floor

cracks and openings into the school building. Classroom doors are to

remain closed. The district plans to have the fans in place by the

time school starts again in January.

Hill's visit was prompted by a Sandpoint doctor contacting the state

public works department about the number of teachers he was seeing

from the school with symptoms they blamed on the stench.

Sandpoint resident Mike Conner encouraged his wife, , a first-

grade teacher at the school, to come forward after she experienced

dizziness, memory loss and other mold-induced symptoms on

consecutive days. She said she's missed about eight days of school

since the odor started. The Conners spoke to the school board about

their concerns at the Dec. 12 meeting and distributed a petition

signed by about 20 teachers, who listed symptoms including itchy

eyes, memory loss and dizziness.

" Something in the school has made these staff members sick, " Mike

Conner said Thursday. Most are reluctant to speak out, he said,

because " they're all afraid they're going to lose their jobs. "

Students have reported symptoms, too, but not in the numbers staff

members have.

Cvitanich has said that teachers who miss school because of symptoms

from the smell likely won't have their sick days docked.

Hill visited the school two weeks ago with Harry Beaulieu, president

and senior scientist with Industrial Hygiene Resources in Boise, and

of L & S Engineering in Spokane. Accompanied by Jeff

Lambert of Enviroscience, an environmental engineer hired by the

school district, Hill, Beaulieu and spent about seven hours

examining the school, looking in the utility tunnels and conducting

air quality tests. They determined that the school was safe for

occupancy that day.

Though mold is present throughout the school, it won't pose any harm

if the spore-filled air is kept beneath the school in the utility

tunnels, Beaulieu said.

" This does not warrant a full-scale mold abatement across the whole

crawl space, " he said.

The investigation began about seven weeks ago when a teacher

complained of a musty smell in her classroom. Janitors inspected the

room and, finding nothing, entered the dirt-floor utility tunnels

beneath the school building, where they discovered a black mold

under the classroom. An abatement contractor treated the mold with a

disinfectant Nov. 11 and 12. Teachers working in the building Nov.

12, a Sunday, complained of the smell that day.

Janitors repaired a leaky water heater and replaced nearby floor

tiles and wall boards. Multiple air quality tests over the next few

weeks showed nothing unusual, but teachers continued to complain of

symptoms. The smell would even move throughout the building, though

it concentrated mostly on the east end.

The school was built in two parts in the 1960s. The east end,

Farmin, served as an elementary school, while the west end,

Stidwell, was the junior high. The buildings were connected by a

commons area a few years later.

Farmin had the utility tunnels, while Stidwell did not. That

explains why school staff on the west end of the building didn't

experience the symptoms that many east side teachers reported,

officials noted.

[Guest guest]

How will they keep the air just in the tunnels beneath that school?

My thought on this is that schools have to be moldy because they are usually

closed all summer without any air conditioning running so regardless of the

tunnels or not, a lot of schools will be moldy.

tigerpaw2c <tigerpaw2c@...> wrote:

Strange stench at school traced to tunnels

Meghann M. Cuniff

Staff writer

December 28, 2006

The Spokesman Review - Spokane,WA

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=8272

The case of the mysterious stench at a Sandpoint school appears to

have been solved.

An inspector with the state department of public works blames the

musty, moldy smell that's permeated Farmin-Stidwell Elementary

School since early November on the dirt-floor utility tunnels under

a portion of the school.

The air pressure in that crawl space is pushing the smell of mold

spores up into the building, causing the stench to waft through the

halls and explaining why school employees report the odor appears to

move around the east wing of the building.

School officials had suspected from the start that the crawl space

was the culprit, said Dick Cvitanich, superintendent of the Lake

Pend Oreille School District.

A report from Elaine Hill, school safety project manager for the

state public works department, says the 600-student school is safe

to occupy but that a number of steps needs to be taken as soon as

possible to stop the smell.

Hill's report calls for janitors to examine the school's ventilation

system for defects and hire a professional engineer to evaluate the

system for ways to change the air flow in the east wing. Four large

exhaust fans are to be installed in the utility tunnels that will

keep the air in the crawl space rather than flowing through floor

cracks and openings into the school building. Classroom doors are to

remain closed. The district plans to have the fans in place by the

time school starts again in January.

Hill's visit was prompted by a Sandpoint doctor contacting the state

public works department about the number of teachers he was seeing

from the school with symptoms they blamed on the stench.

Sandpoint resident Mike Conner encouraged his wife, , a first-

grade teacher at the school, to come forward after she experienced

dizziness, memory loss and other mold-induced symptoms on

consecutive days. She said she's missed about eight days of school

since the odor started. The Conners spoke to the school board about

their concerns at the Dec. 12 meeting and distributed a petition

signed by about 20 teachers, who listed symptoms including itchy

eyes, memory loss and dizziness.

" Something in the school has made these staff members sick, " Mike

Conner said Thursday. Most are reluctant to speak out, he said,

because " they're all afraid they're going to lose their jobs. "

Students have reported symptoms, too, but not in the numbers staff

members have.

Cvitanich has said that teachers who miss school because of symptoms

from the smell likely won't have their sick days docked.

Hill visited the school two weeks ago with Harry Beaulieu, president

and senior scientist with Industrial Hygiene Resources in Boise, and

of L & S Engineering in Spokane. Accompanied by Jeff

Lambert of Enviroscience, an environmental engineer hired by the

school district, Hill, Beaulieu and spent about seven hours

examining the school, looking in the utility tunnels and conducting

air quality tests. They determined that the school was safe for

occupancy that day.

Though mold is present throughout the school, it won't pose any harm

if the spore-filled air is kept beneath the school in the utility

tunnels, Beaulieu said.

" This does not warrant a full-scale mold abatement across the whole

crawl space, " he said.

The investigation began about seven weeks ago when a teacher

complained of a musty smell in her classroom. Janitors inspected the

room and, finding nothing, entered the dirt-floor utility tunnels

beneath the school building, where they discovered a black mold

under the classroom. An abatement contractor treated the mold with a

disinfectant Nov. 11 and 12. Teachers working in the building Nov.

12, a Sunday, complained of the smell that day.

Janitors repaired a leaky water heater and replaced nearby floor

tiles and wall boards. Multiple air quality tests over the next few

weeks showed nothing unusual, but teachers continued to complain of

symptoms. The smell would even move throughout the building, though

it concentrated mostly on the east end.

The school was built in two parts in the 1960s. The east end,

Farmin, served as an elementary school, while the west end,

Stidwell, was the junior high. The buildings were connected by a

commons area a few years later.

Farmin had the utility tunnels, while Stidwell did not. That

explains why school staff on the west end of the building didn't

experience the symptoms that many east side teachers reported,

officials noted.

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