Re: Growing fungus in class at school -- P.S.

December 14, 2002

Laurie,

I forgot to mention that the journalism teacher also argued that he'd

never had a problem before with students and the chemicals -- and

some of those students " probably had asthma. "

I argued back, " How do you know? And just because you've been lucky

so far, how do you know you won't have a student in the future with a

respiratory illness ... that may develop into a real problem? "

And... he also argued that was now working in their newly-

built, state of the art, well ventilated darkroom. The nurse even

toured the darkroom and told me she didn't notice any strong odors. I

referred them both to the MSDS sheets that clearly said (albeit in

fine print) " Absence of odor is not indicative of strenght. May

affect pre-existing conditions of the lungs, eyes, skin and mucus

membranes. "

That definitely shut the door on the discussion. As far as the nurse

was concerned, the case was now closed -- mom is right, teacher has

to fix the problem. I also forgot to mention that one of the things

she made the teacher do was hold a formal darkroom saftey session for

the photographers, and he sent home notices to parents that we had to

sign and return stating we understood their were possible health

risks involved in the darkroom.

Teachers don't like knowing they can be sued for negligence, but

sometimes it helps to hint at the possibilty that their actions are

negligent.

Kim

Mom of (23 with asthma and cf) and (20 asthma no cf)

>>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

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