mold-symptom.com

Mold in schools -- it seems to be popping up all over. A lot of students and teachers across the state got sick this fall because of mold in their buildings. Some companies are very strict about the way they get rid of mold to make sure you don't get sick.

Social worker Leslie Salamack made the discovery when she opened her office at Church Street School in Hamden in August. "I noticed on the binding of several books there was a kind of a white substance that I was worried might be mold."

She was right. It was mold from a refrigerator that stopped working over the summer and leaked.

"I threw a lot of things out. There's a cabinet over here, I had a lot of paper in there. Just threw all that stuff out," she said.

Mold is now a common problem in school buildings, in part because of poor venitlation systems, causing severe headaches and sinus problems for some students and teachers across the state.

"Whatever it takes to keep the building safe for our people is what we'll do," said Mark Albanese, facilities director for Hamden schools.

Hamden's mold problem was considered small, so janitors handled the clean up. But for bigger jobs health departments call in the mold busters. When Servpro gets the call, workers get in full protective gear with gloves, eye protection and respirators.

"The teachers were finding green, black, red mold growth on walls, books, globes, desks, everything."

The North Haven-based company remediated mold in two Connecticut schools this fall. We went with them on the cleanup of a residential basement to see how they attack mold. Here, water damage led to major mold growth.

"The mold in this situation probably goes up to about maybe 18-24 inches in some areas, but to make sure we got it all we're going to go up to the four feet line."

First, they create negative air pressure in the basement to contain the dust. Then the mold is vaccumed up.

"The HEPA vacuuming would trap a good percentage of the mold spores that are clinging to that wall, preventing them from being airborne," Bill King, manager of Servpro, said.

The contaminated areas are removed, bagged up and taken away.

So how can school districts prevent mold growth, especially in buildings that are closed for weeks at a time?

"Some schools don't have air conditioning," says Guy Watson, owner of Servpro. "I'd say in those classrooms go buy a dehumidifier and run it all summer long. You won't have any mold growth."

Or follow Hamden's lead and adopt "Tools for Schools," a nationwide inititave that teaches staff what to look for, how to solve air quality problems and how to be pro-active.

"It's up to all of us to help the kids and work with the kids and make sure they're healthy," said Mary Levine, chairman of Hamden Schools Health & Safety Committee. "They can't learn if they're not healthy."

The only thing these educators want to nurture is young minds.

Levine, who is also the principal of another Hamden school, says since she started using the Tools for Schools program, absenteeism in her school has been cut in half.