Kids' health worries parents

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Kids' health worries parents

Greenwich Time - Greenwich,CT*

By Hoa Nguyen

Staff Writer

Article Launched: 03/31/2008

http://www.greenwichtime.com/ci_8753493

DeMartis' son had constant headaches and occasional nose

bleeds. Mina Bibeault's daughter complained of frequent headaches

and burning eyes, while her son often had a runny nose. Donna

Ortoli's son also suffered from similar health ailments.

These three Hamilton Avenue School parents are among those worried

that their children's health symptoms are linked to conditions at

the modular school building. Officials shut down the school last

month after officials found a significant mold infestation in the

roof eaves and crawl space.

" My child has a cold now, is it related? " DeMartis asked. " Maybe the

mold spores are on the books they got from the classroom? You don't

know what to believe anymore. "

With Hamilton Avenue School students dispersed to different schools

across the town, parents are calling on the Board of Education to

allow their own experts into the moldy modular buildings to perform

their own tests and investigation.

But while officials said they welcome parents hiring their own

specialists, the Board of Education stopped short of giving them

access to the buildings. Officials said that re-testing was

unnecessary.

" We believe the protocol that has been used for the environmental

testing is really high quality and we welcome any specialist you

would like to bring to sit down with the specialist (who has) been

in the building and has done the test to review the protocol and the

methods involved and I think you would be satisfied, " Board of

Education member Moriarty told parents at a meeting Thursday.

School officials also said a separate second consultant has been

retained to review the findings and Long, director of

environmental health services for the town Department Health, has

been briefed.

" I think we did our due diligence, " Superintendent of Schools Betty

Sternberg said in an interview Friday.

But parents said they have lost all trust in the school district.

" If the Board of Ed has nothing to hide, they should allow us in, "

Bibeault said. " Board of Ed, if you feel 120-percent confident in

your results, you should roll out the red carpet. "

Some parents also are concerned that furniture, books and other

items taken out of the modulars may harbor mold spores that would

spread to other schools if moved there. But Schwartz, head

of Scarsdale, N.Y.-based Environmental Assessments & Solutions, who

performed the tests for the district, said tests show that items

from five classrooms registered a normal " background level " of mold.

" There is absolutely no harm, " he said. " If this stuff was going to

my child's classrooms, I would have no reservation. "

Schwartz said mold is naturally occurring and at low levels presents

little danger.

" It's part of the normal background environment that is in your

house and in my house, " he said. " If we were to test my house dust,

we would get the same levels, if we were to test your house dust, we

would get the same levels. "

Another indoor air quality specialist also not connected to the

Hamilton Avenue School testing said there are no hard and fast

rules.

" It's very hard to comment because there's no one size fits all

answer, " said a Schenck, assistant director of the Farmington-

based Center for Indoor Environments and Health at the University of

Connecticut. " You have to look at the individual situation. "

She said while mold is easily cleaned from some furniture,

particularly metal, it is more difficult to rid from paper and other

organic materials. Schenck said that while some small amount of mold

can be naturally occuring indoors, it should be kept to an

absolutely minimum.

" It's complicated because what you don't want is mold growing on

materials inside, " Schenck said. " Mold is a very normal part of our

ecology but you don't want it growing inside. It's not a healthy

environment inside. "

In addition to mold, parents also fear the presence of formaldehyde

in the modulars. Schwartz said the chemical is present in ultra-low

concentrations, but parents also dispute that finding and want their

own tests. Formaldehyde causes cancer in lab animals and may cause

cancer in humans, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency.

" What irks me about the formaldehyde is it could be a good five

years before my kids get diagnosed, " Bibeault said.