Video - Black Mold Discovered In School

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Black Mold Discovered In School

TriCities.com - City,TN*

By Darius Radzius

Reporter / WJHL

Published: May 16, 2008

http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/black_mold_discovered

_in_school/9553/

For the past three years, a strange odor has reeked from the

vocational school at Science Hill High School. A Knoxville company

conducted testing on the building to find the source of the three

year stench. The firm revealed several factors including building

age, moisture, and cleaning products played a role in raising the

stink. Thursday night, that same company met with city and school

system leaders to discuss a solution to the problem.

The contractor identified many sources that caused the stink

throughout the building and the HAVAC system for circulating the bad

odor. As for the solution: leaders talked about several " fixes "

but didn't devise a definite plan.

It lingered in the air since 2005…

" We felt we had problems. Some worse than others. I was fortunate

that I did not have that many problems, " said Tammy who

taught at Science Hill's vocational school.

says it was worst to work in the building during hottest part

of the year.

" We were always in humidity especially during the summer, " said

.

and others have been complaining about an offensive odor for

awhile until they were told to move out so a contractor can sniff

out the problem. The final report simply described Science Hill's

vocational building as having sick building syndrome. Bad roof,

unmaintained HVAC system, and clogged drains provided for the

perfect environment for black fungi and black mold to grow.

" Being a healthcare professional and working with lungs and

respiratory, I was really concerned about issues of mold and what

could actually happen them, " said .

She says people around her felt ill.

" Scratchy throat, headaches, problems we couldn't deal with

everyday, " said .

The contractor tested the environment of the school.

" There was nothing in that report in all of their year-long analysis

that identified a correlation between what was going on in that

building and effecting individual's health, " said Pete ,

city manager for City.

Beyond the costly repairs, the city took away a bigger lesson.

" Like everyone else, we have to pay more attention to more ongoing

building maintenance, " said .

The city said it may be able to tack on some repairs to the

vocational schools to current capital projects. For example, the

city manager said the city will include the school on the list of

other schools having their roofs repaired.

Aside from the new roof, leaders made no other decisions on how to

proceed with other repairs.