ton ISD room passes mold test

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Saturday, March 23, 2002

2:34 a.m. CT

ton ISD room passes mold test

By Raynor

jraynor@...

PERRYTON - Black mold met its death in a ton High School classroom,

according to test results given to the school district, the superintendent

said Friday.

Meanwhile, the district prepares to have a districtwide indoor environmental

air quality test April 2 to make sure students and teachers can breathe

without fear.

A classroom in the vocational wing of the high school harbored stachybotrys

chartarum, a type of mold that may cause serious health problems, although

none has been connected to the fungus at the school.

Environmental Group tested the room Wednesday after about a week of

treatment by Asbestos Removal Inc. and returned results Thursday,

Superintendent Robin Adkins said.

The group removed its filtering equipment Friday, he said.

" We're going to start moving in the classrooms, " Adkins said. " We should be

back to normal operations on Tuesday. "

Students arriving to the classroom next week will find their carpet gone and

new ceiling tiles, as both were torn out to remove the mold. The classroom

was cleaned and disinfected, Adkins said, and the district plans to replace

the carpet with floor tiles in the summer.

Some in the mold removal industry said they are concerned that school

districts such as ton aren't doing enough to protect against mold.

Clint Junell, owner of Junell's Breathe Easy in Amarillo, said he did a

facilities assessment of ton's high school building a couple of years

ago on the request of the maintenance director there.

" We didn't do any samplings, but we noted several areas of water damage, "

Junell said. " Most buildings over there leak. They need to be pro-active in

addressing these concerns. "

Water damage is a breeding ground for the mold, said Dr. Straus, who

has a Ph.D. in microbiology and works at Texas Tech's Health Science Center

in Lubbock.

" That has to be fixed above all. Anything else you do is a waste of time, "

Straus said.

If the problem isn't fixed, the highly poisonous mold could appear again and

cause nose bleeds, dizziness, mental confusion and hair loss, depending on

how much mold is present, Straus said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reports that the

mold could cause allergy and asthma-type symptoms such as itchy eyes,

wheezing and stuffiness.

The molds release mycotoxins that work to inhibit protein synthesis, a

process on which human cells survive, Straus said.

Adkins said he doesn't want his staff or students to become ill, so he made

sure he pursued the appropriate action. The upcoming indoor air-quality

assessment will address a wide range of air quality concerns, Adkins said.

The leaking problem - which Adkins blames on the last big snow - in the

affected classroom was fixed, and he said the district tries its best to

address a variety of maintenance issues.

" Before you have a critical situation like mold, you can't predict you'll

have a mold situation arise, " Adkins said. " When you have maintenance

problems in the district, you have to prioritize, take care of repairing and

doing those things that need to be repaired. This is a new crisis on the

horizon. We have to change our way of thinking. "