Mold allergy rides again!

[Guest guest]

Mal (Malibu805@...) wrote:

" ...my sick son had fever, nausea, abdomial pain, headache and joint pain.

After the usual

ineffective rounds of doctors and blood, urine and fecal tests, our

nutritionist connected the illness with his classroom. And guess what? The

classroom is full of mold. Now this child had a toxic exposure to mold from

199l - 1994 in our former storm-damaged house. He has been recovered until

now. Thought you'd like to know that repeat exposure can trigger the old

antibodies and cause the immune system to shut down years later. He is not

in school and is recovering with help of a detox program from one of several

alternative therapists we saw. Now how to get the school to do the right

thing-another challenge. "

Having moderated the sick buildings list (www.onelist.com) for a year now, I

have heard stories about toxic molds and the way victims of these type

exposures are treated to make you want to cry. Even though indoor air

pollution and toxic molds, in particular, have been known to be serious,

even life-threatening health hazards, school districts still take a cavalier

attitude, " it's no big deal " attitude about construction and " it's not in

the air " maintenance of school buildings. Look how many children are housed

in " temporary " substandard portable classrooms year after year rather than

build the schools we need to educate our children.

Rather than adhere to a rigid maintenance schedule, they allow these systems

to become incrusted with filth. Rather than install flooring that is

conducive to health of children's lungs, they choose carpeting (usually poor

quality) and allow it to become a breeding ground for bacteria and mold.

When roof leaks soak the carpet, they make few efforts to dry it out, rather

than rip it up and toss it in the trash. Rather than adopt the EPA's Tools

for Schools program as a starting point towards providing a safe and healthy

environment for our offspring, they criticize and demonize teachers or

parents who demand safe classrooms or report their own illnesses.

Rather than make the effort to put a program in place that addresses these

health concerns, they threaten the teachers, like Apopka High School did

recently, with moving them to other schools for " their own health. " When

they think no one is looking, in the cover of darkness, they send in their

maintenance crews to rip out contaminated materials. Unprotected and

ignorant of the dangers they are encountering, they spread toxic spores

throughout the building haphazardly insuring the school's further

contamination. Then, they deny there is any problem, point to the replaced

materials and expect us to pat them on the back for being " proactive "

administrators.

Right now, in El Paso, mothers are organizing to fight against the school

district that poisoned their children and lied to the parents in their

community. Because these parents are of Mexican ancestry, the district

simply assumed they were ignorant and would not take action - they weren't

and they did. In California, parents were so enraged over the cover-up of

unreported toxins in their school that sickened their children that they

protested and marched outside of the school. Teachers, working in concert,

were able to shut one contaminated school down. But the majority of schools

go untested, in substandard condition and are being maintained by

maintenance crews who are not empowered or trained to properly and safely

care for these facilities.

No one knows why toxic molds, particularly stachybotrus and penicillum, have

blossomed and proliferated recently but they have and they can be deadly.

They cause the immune system to fail, leaving the person susceptible to any

opportunistic infection that comes along. They cause our blood to lose it's

ability to easily coagulate, making surgery much more risky. Victims

develop a host of auto-immune diseases: asthma, CFIDS, MCS, fibro,

rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, lupus and other diseases. Toxic molds are

not an allergen, they are a biohazard.

We can protect ourselves and our children, by demanding that schools be

built safely, maintained carefully and regularly tested for contaminants.

Until Congress once again belongs to the people, and not the special

interest groups, and regulations regarding indoor air quality become law, we

can write our representatives, state education commissioners, the EPA and

others whose job is to ensure the health, safety and welfare of our

children. We can demand public health inspections of these facilities and

accountability of our elected officials - from our local school boards right

on up to the President. We can be very effective at the local level, by

educating parents and our PTO and enlisting others in the fight to get

pesticides, molds and toxins out of our schools and the EPA's Tools for

Schools Program and responsible building and maintenance practices into our

schools.

Barbara Herskovitz

bherk@...