Contaminated Books

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This is an appalling story. Please write to the newspaper about this.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2910332 & BRD=1769 & PAG=461 & dept_id=74969

By Hallie Arnold, Freeman staff January 06, 2002

STONE RIDGE - Books from the Marbletown Elementary School library that may be

contaminated with mold will be donated to schoolchildren in East Africa under a

plan approved by the Rondout Valley school board.

The books were pulled from the library's shelves last June, long after a mold

problem at the grade school was believed to be solved, because library

volunteers who were handling them experienced throat and breathing problems.

Tests at an independent laboratory came back positive for mold - a problem that

shut down Marbletown Elementary for eight months in 2000.

According to a prepared statement from school district spokesman ,

the affected books now will be donated to the Eritrea Community Center in New

York City, which will inspect them and pack them for overseas shipment to the

poor, developing East African nation of Eritrea. Formerly a province of

Ethiopia, the country gained independence in 1993 after a 30-year struggle.

said the district was alerted to the needs of Eritrea by the National

Honor Society at the high school, which had been working with a young man named

Kidane Mikael, an Eritrean man who works at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz.

Mikael makes an annual pilgrimage to his homeland during the winter, and every

year he seeks donations of supplies to take with him. This time, he's gathering

books for Eritrean schools.

When the results of the mold tests were released to the media last fall, the

district pulled all of the questionable books off the library shelves and put

them in storage until the district could decide what to do next.

Now, even though the books may be carrying with them potentially hazardous mold

spores, said district officials are not concerned about passing them

along to Eritrea, in part because of the country's arid climate.

" From what I've been told, the Eritrea Center is going to look them over, and if

they have any concerns they're not going to pass them off, " said Friday.

" It's a dry and arid country, a very desert area, right above Ethiopia. Mold

doesn't grow in a desert. "

Beth Sulander, one of the library volunteers who had the books tested earlier

this year, said that while she's pleased the books are out of the library, she

is nonetheless concerned that the district may be passing the problem along.

" The environmental consultants said the books should be discarded unless they're

individually tested, " she said. " If the books can be donated and used safely,

I'm all for it. But in my heart of hearts, I hope and pray that we're not going

to make children in another country sick. "

Marbletown Elementary School was closed from December 1999 until August 2000

after a leaky roof led to widespread mold contamination in the school. The

school library was one of the areas hardest hit by the water damage and mold

contamination, and, even after the school reopened, the library was not fully

operational for several months.

©Daily Freeman 2002

Barth

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