Guilford County Schools / Mold Mystery Matter of Mal-Air

[Guest guest]

Mold Mystery Matter of Mal-Air

Reader Feedback

http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-i-2009-07-09-197476.112113_Mold_Myster\

y_Matter_of_MalAir.html

by C.

Staff Writerwrite the authorJuly 09, 2009

The health symptoms plaguing teachers and students at Oak Ridge Elementary

School were caused primarily by poor ventilation in the 4-year-old building,

according to the Guilford County Department of Public Health.

The health department on June 25 released the final results of its

epidemiological study of the symptoms, which have increasingly troubled the

teachers and students since the school was rebuilt in 2005, and now discounts

mold as a cause of any remaining symptoms. Health officials found that Guilford

County Schools has taken appropriate steps to combat the mold found at the

school since 2007. " Further efforts are not medically indicated at this time, "

they reported.

The health department found that the symptoms most commonly reported by parents

and students – headaches, fatigue and difficulty concentrating – were caused by

a lack of fresh air, and went away when teachers opened doors and windows in the

school. It found that another frequently reported symptom, nosebleeds, was

caused by a combination of dry air and nose picking.

School and health officials hope the report will quiet the alarm among parents

and teachers at Oak Ridge Elementary, and clear the way for reopening it in

August, after an inspection of the school by a team from the National Institute

for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and a recalibration of the school's

heating and air-conditioning system. But in the Oak Ridge community, widespread

fear remains that the symptoms are mold related, and Guilford County Schools is

working on a " plan B " to relocate students and teachers if remediation work at

the school is not finished by the time school opens.

The NIOSH team is scheduled to inspect Oak Ridge between July 13 and July 17,

and Guilford County Schools administrators held a conference call with NIOSH

representatives on July 7 to prepare for the federal team's visit to the school,

which has been closed since June 19, when the school system moved its principal,

assistant principal and secretaries to Northwest Middle School.

School board member Darlene Garrett, at the school board's Tuesday, July 7

meeting, said, " We're all looking forward to NIOSH coming. "

Guilford County Schools created a Plan B Committee to study options for students

and teachers if the school doesn't reopen in August. That committee has met

twice.

Among the options the committee is considering are reopening the school while

remediation work continues in part of the building, relocating the entire

student body to " swing space " in other buildings off school grounds, and

distributing the students among other elementary schools. Among the schools that

have been discussed as potential hosts are Colfax and Stokesdale elementary

schools, which are in adjacent attendance zones and have extra space.

School officials said that moving mobile classrooms to Oak Ridge is probably

cost prohibitive, and the Oak Ridge property is both too small and too oddly

shaped to hold many mobile classrooms.

Guilford County Schools Chief of Staff Nora Carr said the school system has not

yet settled on a preferred option if the school is not ready by August.

" Parents on the committee have shared a preference for keeping everyone together

if possible, " Carr said. " Staff have mixed emotions about that, especially if it

means a longer drive or commute due to day-care considerations. "

The health department's final report echoed statements made by Dr. Ward

, the health department's medical director, after he and Guilford County

Health Director Merle Green released the department's preliminary findings on

June 12.

At a press conference on Tuesday, June 16, said the Oak Ridge building

has a case of " sick building syndrome, " probably caused by a badly calibrated

heating and air-conditioning system, and that there was no science to support

claims that mold, which has been found at the school several times, is causing

the symptoms. He said, " At no time has mold posed a danger to people in the

school. "

The final report went further, saying the health symptoms are related to a

build-up of carbon dioxide " or other human and building castoffs " in the air at

Oak Ridge.

" The symptoms detailed in the Oak Ridge Elementary School survey match this

pattern, " the health department reported. " Our own inspection of the building

encountered many rooms in the school that needed more air flow for comfort. "

Health department officials said such symptoms have appeared in buildings in

recent years because of changes in building design to eliminate large windows,

high ceilings, fireplaces and porches and other sources of ventilation. Most of

those changes were introduced to make buildings more energy efficient.

According to the survey results released by the health department, during the

2008-2009 school year, 92 percent of school employees and 47 percent of students

reported headaches; 26 percent of employees and 19 percent of students reported

nosebleeds; 28 percent of employees and 12 percent of students reported

breathing problems or asthma attacks; and 74 percent of employees and 24 percent

of students reported dry eyes.

Students and teachers also reported rashes, nausea, sinus problems and a host of

other symptoms in smaller percentages. In its final report, the health

department said the other symptoms were not as frequent as the primary symptoms,

and that there was no specific pattern to them.

Guilford County Schools on June 24 filed its response to a June 15 letter from

the Occupational Safety and Health Division of the North Carolina Department of

Labor (NCDOL), which investigates complaints of hazardous workplace

environments, notifying the school system of a complaint filed over the

conditions at the school and ordering the school system to investigate them.

The Guilford County Schools' response letter, written by Director of Maintenance

Gerald Greeson, cited the school system's testing and remediation work at the

school, notified the NCDOL of the school's closing, and welcomed outside help in

solving the Oak Ridge mystery.

" GCS is fully committed to continuing to work with private expert consultants

and public health officials to further assess and take all appropriate measures

to improve [indoor air quality] at the Oak Ridge Elementary facility, " Greeson

wrote. " GCS welcomes any inspection, assessment, or advice from your Division or

any other local, state, or federal agency with appropriate jurisdiction and

expertise that may help GCS to address IAQ [indoor air quality] concerns at the

facility. "

Carr, on June 18, wrote parents and employees at Oak Ridge, saying the school

system would work with NIOSH and the local office of the federal Occupational

Safety and Health Administration, both of whom had made finding and fixing the

school's problems a priority. Carr wrote that public health officials have

suggested that the school system recommission or recalibrate Oak Ridge's heating

and air-conditioning system.

The NCDOL's involvement is just the latest chapter in the Oak Ridge saga, which

dates to the 2005 rebuilding of the school. In addition to the health symptoms,

parents and teachers at the school have reported persistent water leaks in the

building since then, and internal and third-party inspections began turning up

mold in the floors, bathrooms and air-conditioning system of the school at least

as early as 2007, the earliest date for which records are yet available.

The most recent water leak report by parents is a stain on the inside wall of

the school's gym. A June 16 report by engineering consultant Nuhn found

that the paint in the gym was peeling as the result of moisture build-up in the

wall because of water leaking from outside downspout connections. Kuhn found no

mold. He recommended that the downspout be repaired to create a water-tight

joint, and the interior wall be repainted.

What's unexplained to date is why what is an essentially new school is having

such problems with leaks and with its almost-new heating and air-conditioning

system – whether it's malfunctioning, or whether the architects and engineers

who designed the school merely calculated the amount of fresh air that was

needed incorrectly. It is a question the school system will want to have

answered, so it won't happen with other schools in the school board's $457

million construction program, now just getting underway.

And the mold theory still has adherents among Oak Ridge teachers and parents,

and is expected to be one of the things studied by the NIOSH team.