Mold is a concern for Berlin workers

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Mold is a concern for Berlin workers

Cherry Hill Courier Post - Cherry Hill,NJ*

By RICHARD PEARSALL • Courier-Post Staff • May 1, 2008

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

AID=/20080501/NEWS01/805010382/1006/news01

BERLIN BOROUGH — When inspectors showed up late in March to check

the municipal building here for mold, they donned face masks and

respirators as a precaution.

" That's protocol, " said Bob Lentine, of the Camden County

Department of Health and Human Services. " You never know what you're

going to find. "

What the county found, revealed in lab reports that came back a week

later, has led to the closing of the borough hall -- maybe for good -

- and a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the employees who worked

there.

Mold was found in high levels in various parts of the building, but

most heavily in the basement that housed the police department.

And while there is no reason for panic -- " No health problems have

been reported, " Mayor Armano said again Wednesday -- there is

reason for caution and concern.

" People just passing through the building have no reason to be

worried, " Lentine said, " but for people exposed long term it's

important to stay in touch with their doctors. "

" That's why we gave every employee a copy of the (test) results, "

said , an inspector with the county health department

who met with the employees April 1, " so they could give them to

their doctors. "

Three troublesome varieties of mold in troublesome quantities were

found in the borough hall, Lentine said: Aspergillus versicolor,

penicillium and stachybotrys.

All three can cause respiratory problems for people with allergies

or asthma or " compromised immune systems, " Lentine said.

And long-term exposure can lead people to " become sensitive " to the

effects of the mold, which can include skin irritation as well as

respiratory problems.

But there are no standards, either state or federal, on what

constitutes an acceptable indoor level for something that is as

natural, in its way, as pollen.

" That is one of the problems, " said Joan , a professor of

plant biology and pathology at Rutgers University. " The research is

thin. "

The system of testing that has evolved, she said, and Lentine

confirmed, is to test mold levels outside, then check inside to see

if they're significantly higher -- 10-fold is a general guideline --

or if there are types of mold inside that don't exist outside at all.

" Every day we breathe thousands of spores, " said. " We've

evolved to cope with them.

" It's pretty well established that for people with asthma or

allergies mold is problematic, causing breathing problems that, if

you'll pardon the expression, are not to be sneezed at.

" Where the question marks come up is when you ask, " Do they do worse

than that?' "

Stachybotrys, a nasty form of black mold that tends to hide behind

tiles and walls, was linked in the 1990s to infant deaths in

Cincinnati.

But the links were never proved, which has led to uncertainty,

frustration, and a good deal of litigation, not all of it justified,

said.

" I wish we scientists could be more certain, " she said, " but we

simply don't know at this point. "

Borough council meets Monday evening to discuss what to do about the

borough hall, a former school building: Repair and remediate it? Or

demolish it and start over?

Borough officials have been meeting with officials from Berlin

Township, which is also without a town hall at the moment, to

discuss the possibility of building one together.

With borough hall closed, municipal officials are operating out of

the old Berlin Hotel next door. The police department is using a

rented office building a block away, across from the King of Pizza.

Reach Pearsall at (856) 486-2465 or

rpearsall@...