Re: Growing fungus in class at school

[Guest guest]

Wow! This is really dumb! Why would anyone ask students to grow a

mold, any mold, and then bring it to school? You don't have very

long to get this stopped. School break is only about ten days away.

Thank goodness your son told you about this! Good luck and keep us

posted.

Gale

[Guest guest]

Wow! This is really dumb! Why would anyone ask students to grow a

mold, any mold, and then bring it to school? You don't have very

long to get this stopped. School break is only about ten days away.

Thank goodness your son told you about this! Good luck and keep us

posted.

Gale

[Guest guest]

Wow! This is really dumb! Why would anyone ask students to grow a

mold, any mold, and then bring it to school? You don't have very

long to get this stopped. School break is only about ten days away.

Thank goodness your son told you about this! Good luck and keep us

posted.

Gale

[Guest guest]

Hi Laurie,

It's true that OSHA's mission applies to the safety of employees, not

students. If, for example, a teacher's health was compromised at that

school, then the teacher could get OSHA involved. It is suprising and

sad though, that the school is discounting your concern even when you

cite OSHA regs.

However, just because your son's school is downplaying the issue

doesn't mean you're without help; you just need to pull in the

correct state and federal agencies.

A few years ago, I was a member of the American School Health Assoc.

You can get info from them to present your concerns about whether the

school is following student health and safety recommendations. Go to

www.ashaweb.org

Additionally, here are more web sites for ammunition:

1) Center for Disease Control's Division of School Health

www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash

2) CDC page on aspergillosis (this alone ought to scare the teacher,

administration and school board into compliance).

www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/aspergillosis_t.htm

3) CDC page on air pollution and asthma (asthma is a high-profile

concern in schools, so you can argue they are not only putting your

son with CF at risk, but all students and employees with asthma)

www.cdc.gov/nceh/airpollution/asthma/interventions/interventions.htm

4) Idaho Dept. of Health and Welfare: phone numbers for officials.

www2.state.id.us/dhw/health/des_programs_health.htm#Health and Safety

5) This next link is long, be sure to capture all the lines of the

link if you want to read this page or print to take to school

officials. Below this link, I have copied a pertinent paragraph.

http://search.state.id.us/search97cgi/s97_cgi.exe?

Action=Search&ServerKey=Primary&ResultTemplate=dhwresult.hts&collectio

n=Department+of+Health+and+Welfare&QueryText=school+environment

" Healthy Environment - Since children spend most of their time in

school, child care facilities, or at home, it is important to reduce

their exposure to environmental asthma triggers as much as possible

in each of these environments. Many indoor air quality problems in

schools can impact the health of students and staff, including those

with asthma. Some of the sources of indoor air quality problems

include: carpets; old upholstered furniture; chemical pollutants from

building or building maintenance materials; chemical pollutants from

science or art classes; improperly maintained ventilation systems;

and allergens from classroom animals and cockroaches or other pests.

Mold growth may result from standing water in maintenance rooms and

near piping, or from excess moisture in ceiling tiles, carpets, and

other furnishings. Also, outdoor air pollutants and pollens may

enter the school through ventilation systems and/or open doors and

windows. "

I don't know if you remember my son's story in high school involving

the journalism darkroom and his journalism teacher. I discovered that

the darkroom chemicals were the source of his first major hemoptysis

episode, resulting in a 5-day hospitalization, unecessary PICC

placement (his first), 15 days of unnecessary piggyback IV

antibiotics, juggling home health nursing care -- and emotional and

financial distress to the family.

Two men with CF suspected it was the chemical fumes, and one sent me

the OSHA Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) on three of the chemicals

the students used in the darkroom. I photocopied the sheets and sent

copies to the school nurse, principal, and teacher along with a

letter outlining the >$10,000 5-day hospitalization and missed school

days. But more importantly, pointed out that we would never know the

potential long-term harm these chemicals may have caused my son's

lungs.

To the credit of the wonderful school nurse, she reprimanded the

journalism teacher after I told her that the ONLY chemical training

the students got from the teacher were: " Here are the chemicals;

don't get them in your eyes, don't drink them, read the labels. "

He argued that teenagers don't listen beyond those instructions, but

she stood firm saying it wasn't good enough. He was so pissed off

that he called me and yelled at me for about 40 minutes while I was

supposed to be teaching a computer class!

However, that night he thought about it and called other journalism

teachers at schools the same size as our high school. The other

teachers said they never got in information about safety while in

college, and never held training sessions with the high schoolers.

Within 72-hours, our journalism teacher created a state model for

high school darkroom safety: goggles, eye wash station in the room,

gloves, students had to sign in and out of the darkroom -- and were

no longer allowed to just hang out in the darkroom while others

developed film. AND, the sofa was removed from the darkroom. These

kids would go in there and take a nap in-between developing film --

my son included!

So please don't give up the fight. Our junior high school had a huge

mold problem. A couple classrooms were built over a low water area

and you could see mold growing on the walls. The school district

tried everything short of tearing down that corner of the building.

Our pediatricians commented that junior high kids were sure good for

their business because of the increased allergies and asthma. My

daughter has asthma and allergies -- her worst are dust mites and

molds; during her last year at the jr. high, she developed migraines

from the molds. The headaches hit 2-3 times a day, 2-3 times a week

and she had to go on a daily cardiovascular med for the migraines.

But luckily she was able to go off the med as soon as school ended.

So... 1) print out as much documentation as you can find to back your

concerns, 2) get a back up letter from 's doctor(s), 3) deliver

copies of the letter and documents to his teacher, principal, school

nurse, the school district health coordinator (if you have one), the

school district Superintendent, and chairman of the school board.

Generally, people have 10 working days to respond to issues, but due

to Christmas vacation looming soon, in your letter tell them you want

a response by Friday, December 20.

If you need more resources to argue the point, please let me know.

Kim

Mom of (23, CF and asthma) and (20, asthma no CF)

Hi to all!

I just spent some time on the phone with my son's school voiceing my

concerns about the science project his class will be working on for

the next few weeks.

The science teacher has decided to do a unit on fungus. I have no

problem with that, except, he is asking all students to grow some

type of fungus at home over Christmas break, and then bring it to

school to compare and examine. " We are hoping to get a nice variety

of Aspergillus, mildew and other kinds of household molds ( who knows

what kind)for the students to experience " said my sons science

teacher. ( last year a kid brought in onions that were covered with a

mold looking black slime--B.Cepacia?)

I asked him what qualifications he had to be dealing with these types

of organisms and what saftey equipment the school had installed to be

able to do this since there were only 2 labratories in our state that

could even work with these molds under OSHA. His answer was a very

typical " Huh? " " I didn't know about that "

How can the schools get by having students intentionally grow these

things and then bring them into a classroom setting, with a teacher

who has no training as to what he is dealing with, when the hospital

labratories are not even allowed to deal with these types of things,

they must be sent to the state lab where they have specialized

equipment. My husband, a labratory technologist at a hospital

labratory, about went throught he roof when he found out that these

things were going to be brought into my son's classroom! His

conversation with the teacher was quite civil--for now.

Since there is no containment or ventilation hoods at this school, it

is a given that the spores will get into the venilation system and be

spread throughout the school, exposing everyone.

I am very concerned about my son since he is a student in this class,

but also other students in the school who are at risk, asthma,

leukemia, etc. They will all be at risk as these spores, brought into

a small classroom by about 120 students gain access to the

ventilation system in the school. How can this be allowed?!

I have contacted OSHA but they do not protect students or public

employees but, if anyone brought this into the workplace in the

private sector they could deal with it immediately!

The worst part is the school thiks that I am over-reacting. They said

that they have been doing this for years and no-one has ever gotton

sick.

(interestingly enough, I looked back and the time of year they have

done this project has coincided with being ill.. including his

first ever round of IV abx while this project was going on last year-

incidently, at that time the CF doc was very concerned with

Aspergillus as was symptomatic and one of his lab tests came

out very high, but he didn't grow Aspergillus)

Any input as to how to handle this? I have already been on the phone

to school and am currently searching the internet for information to

drop on them.

Laurie-- MOm to 13 w/CF Idaho