Indoor Air Quality Solutions, IAQS

By Kate Spinner

New federal air quality rules, expected in the coming weeks, will likely trigger a wave of emission controls on industries in Southwest Florida, and the possibility of motor vehicle inspections.

Air quality in the metropolitan region from Sarasota County to Hillsborough County ranks among the worst in the state for the pollutant ozone, created when industrial emissions, car exhaust and other vapors, such as those from gasoline, react with the sun.

Though ozone pollution here is much less severe than many other parts of the nation, it occasionally becomes bad enough to cause health problems for children, the elderly and people with respiratory illness.

Southwest Florida’s air quality barely meets current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, and with those thresholds set to rise, the region will be forced to put better curbs on air pollution.

In Southwest Florida, new industries will likely have to install improved emissions controls and older plants may have to upgrade equipment. Vehicle inspections also remain a possibility, but only if other measures do not go far enough, said Tom Rogers, an environmental administrator with the Florida Division of Air Resource Management.

The EPA had planned to impose the new standards at the end of October, but postponed the date recently without explanation. The agency has been under immense industry pressure to maintain the status quo and getting lawsuit threats from advocacy groups pushing tougher rules.

The new rules will mark the first enforced adjustment to air quality standards since 1997.

“EPA is working hard to finalize an ozone standard that is based on what the science tells us about this threat to Americans’ health. We will announce the final rule as soon as it is ready — this is an important and complex rulemaking and EPA is working to ensure we get it right,” said agency press secretary Brendan Gilfillan in a prepared statement.

Poor air quality

High in the atmosphere, ozone occurs naturally and protects the planet from the sun’s rays. At ground level it becomes a pollutant, created when fuel emissions react with the sun and hot weather.

Extremely sensitive people suffer when air contains more than 60 molecules of ozone for every billion molecules of good air ingredients, such as oxygen and nitrogen. Scientists express that measurement in parts per billion, or ppb.

Within the past 12 months in Sarasota, air quality exceeded 60 ppb for eight hours or longer 35 times, said John Hickey, manager of Sarasota County’s air quality program.

When ozone goes above 75 ppb, most communities issue air quality alerts to warn the young, elderly, those who exercise outdoors and people with asthma or other lung diseases.

Under the EPA’s expiring rules, however, communities do not have to reduce air pollution unless ozone levels routinely spike above 80 ppb. The EPA uses a complicated calculation, based on a three-year average, to judge a community’s air quality.

The new eight-hour standard will fall somewhere between 60 ppb and 70 ppb. Air monitoring stations in Sarasota scored between 70 ppb and 74 ppb for the three-year period ending in 2009. The highest readings during that time climbed into the 80 ppb to 85 ppb range. The highest reading so far this year was 80 ppb at Lido Park on Oct. 22.

Health threat

To most people, ozone in Southwest Florida rarely gets bad enough to notice — in comparison, the worst parts of Los Angeles rise into the 100s — but it can pose serious health problems for some people.

Clean air advocates say the standard should protect everyone, including the vulnerable few.

“We don’t want health standards set to protect a middle-aged, healthy man. We want to make sure his mother and his child and his brother with asthma are all protected,” said Paul Billings, vice president of national policy and advocacy for the American Lung Association.

Norman Edelman, a New York physician and chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, said 20 million to 30 million people in the U.S. have lung disease, making it more difficult for them to breathe as ozone levels increase. Children also develop poor lung function when they are chronically exposed to high ozone levels, Edelman said.

The Clean Air Act requires the federal government to set air quality standards that are healthy for all people and to review those standards every five years.

During such review in 2007, the EPA’s scientists concluded that the national standards were not protective enough and should be set somewhere between 60 ppb and 70 ppb. The EPA in 2008 was going to set the standard at 75 ppb, but the American Lung Association and National Resources Defense Council threatened to sue. A year later, the EPA said it would reconsider the 60 ppb to 70 ppb standard.

The EPA estimates that improving air quality to 60 ppb by 2020 would save 4,000 to 12,000 people from premature death related to respiratory illness and heart failure. Further, the agency estimates that people will collectively miss 2.5 million fewer days of work or school under the tougher standard.

That boost in air quality comes with a high price tag: up to $90 billion, according to EPA estimates. However, the EPA estimates the cost on the health system overall will drop by as much as $100 billion.

Industry groups say stricter standards will cost much more, crippling the economy. A report by the Manufacturers Alliance, funded by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute, estimates the economic cost at more than $1 trillion starting in 2020.

Depending on how strict the EPA gets, the rules could trigger a Florida vehicle inspection program, said Reggie Sanford, enforcement analysis manager with the Air Management Division in Hillsborough County.

“If you’re at a certain level of non-attainment, then according to federal law you’re required to have an inspection and maintenance program,” he said.

Inspection programs are extremely controversial because they can leave people, especially the poor, without a legal car to drive and usually meet with staunch public opposition.

View the full original story by Kate Spinner at the following site http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20101108/ARTICLE/11081045/2055/NEWS?Title=Air-rules-could-force-changes-here&tc=ar

• John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
• Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
• Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
• www.Microshield-ES.com

Mold clung to the ceiling and left dark trails across the walls and floor. The teacher had already complained about the stench months before.

Stuff was even growing on desks.

Classroom 103 at Walker Middle School in Orlando had become a breeding ground for mold. When an inspector investigated last year, he found the humidity at about 86 percent.

And this was no isolated incident.

Moldy classrooms and other indoor-air-quality issues have sparked thousands of complaints from teachers and students during the past three years, an Orlando Sentinel investigation has found. Mold has infested walls and ceilings, ruined books and furniture and, in some cases, led to the wholesale evacuation of children from classrooms.

The Sentinel reviewed thousands of maintenance work orders, school district reports and e-mails as well as independent environmental studies in Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties from August 2007 to August 2010. The key findings:

•A never-ending battle against mold — some of it the most potentially dangerous, toxin-producing varieties — infesting classrooms, cafeterias, locker rooms, media centers and even nurses’ quarters.

•Repeated complaints that cited students and teachers suffering from stinging eyes, breathing distress and other symptoms thought to be related to poor indoor air quality.

•Persistently leaky buildings and faulty air-conditioning systems, which let in the moisture that mold needs to thrive.

•Some schools making matters worse by shutting off the air-conditioning to save money during weekends and summers in one of the hottest, most humid states in the country.

•Different approaches to the problem from school district to school district with inconsistent record keeping. In some cases, maintenance workers were allowed to paint over water-damaged areas instead of removing them as recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

•Parents who are often kept in the dark about the problem.

For nine months a year, 2.6 million students and hundreds of thousands of teachers and other employees spend at least six hours a day in Florida’s public schools. Yet there are no state laws governing how schools should monitor, detect and handle mold buildup and other indoor air-quality issues.

School districts are not required to tell anyone about the problem — not even the local health department — despite a growing body of knowledge that mold can be especially harmful to children. Some people show no outward reaction to mold. In others, however, it can cause sneezing, runny noses, breathing problems and respiratory infections, health experts say.

Mold was one reason why Jessy Hamilton quit his job as a social-studies teacher at Walker Middle School in August. He said he fought mold and respiratory infections for most of the six years he worked there.

The gray-black fungi first appeared in his portable classroom after the hurricanes of 2004. At one point, the entire ceiling was covered in mold, yet he had to hold classes there for eight weeks before his class could move into the media center temporarily, he said.

When Hamilton returned to the portable, the mold seemed to be gone. But it reappeared. Again and again.

“They would look at it and say, ‘Ah, it is not as bad as it was,'” said Hamilton, who was eventually moved to another classroom, which he said also had mold. “They painted over it, which dumbfounds me to this day.”

The principal could not be reached for comment after repeated attempts. But a spokesperson for the school district said his records do not reflect any health concerns related to mold.

The state knows how widespread schools’ indoor air-quality problems are, records and interviews with school district officials show.

The Florida Department of Education has acknowledged that about half of schools are burdened with environmental issues. But it would be expensive to fix them — an estimated $70 million just to start, according to a legislative report written in 2004, the last time the state took a serious look at the issue.

Not only would repairs be pricey, Florida could be setting itself up for lawsuits if it identifies those problems, wrote the Senate analyst who compiled the report.

Central Florida school officials insist schools are safe. They said they urge their employees to report air-quality concerns immediately and that they respond as quickly and aggressively as they can.

Part of the problem, they said, is money. They need more of it — and more personnel — to make repairs, upgrade air-conditioning systems and search out water damage.

The state Legislature has slashed funding for such maintenance projects in the past several years.

A national study by the University of Central Florida found that extra funding alone, however, might not solve the problem.

School districts do not want it publicized that they have mold problems.

“There is often a greater desire to hide problems than have them resolved,” wrote the UCF researchers who, in 2006, found that schools in Florida, Texas, New York and three other states had chronic problems with mold, humidity and odors.

In Orange County, school officials investigated about 1,200 complaints about indoor-air quality during the past three years.

Officials received about 50 complaints from Little River Elementary alone. They have been called to check out buildings dozens of times each at Brookshire and Pine Hills elementary schools and Cypress Creek, Dr. Phillips and University high schools.

Other schools with high numbers of complaints are South Lake High in Lake County, Indian Trails Middle in Seminole County, Gateway High in Osceola County and Deltona High in Volusia County.

Some of the damage has been significant, the Sentinel found.

For example, at Cypress Creek High in Orlando during the 2008-09 school year, inspectors found a 50-square-foot patch of ceiling that had water damage and mold in the boy’s locker room. Older ceiling tiles infected with mold were being stored nearby.

In a neighboring mechanical room, there was standing water.

Brookshire Elementary in Winter Park reported late last year that a 32-square-foot section of ceiling in one of its portables had water damage and mold. Several days before, officials had visited to check out mold growing in patches in the media center and bleeding through the paint in a mechanical room. Two walls in a computer lab had blistering paint and mold.

Mold continually grows on the walls of a main interior hallway there — a problem the principal has complained about repeatedly.

The moisture and mold problems at Walker Middle, apparently caused by a leak that had gone unchecked, should have been reported sooner, said Zach Smith, an environmental coordinator for Orange schools. “Conditions inside classroom 103 likely did not develop over a short period of time,” Smith wrote in his report.

When independent experts have tested the air inside local schools, they have found high levels of mold in about 40 percent of the cases. In some instances, they have discovered toxin-producing molds such as aspergillus and penicillium (which prompted city officials to shut down an Orlando fire station several months ago), and stachybotrys (a “black mold” that has forced the closure of numerous schools nationwide).

An environmental report from 2008, for example, shows that “aspergillus-penicillium” was found at Mill Creek Elementary in Osceola County. That August, the district spent more than $21,000 for an emergency cleanup of 35 classrooms there.

District officials throughout Central Florida said the number of complaints found by the Sentinel make the problem seem worse than it is. Teachers and other employees, they said, are not qualified to determine what is and is not mold with any accuracy.

In fact, a number of reports of “mold” turn out to be simply dark smudges of dust or dirt, officials said.

A “moldy” smell might actually be the unpleasant mixture of too many air fresheners in a room or odors from hamsters and other class pets, said Michael Corr, maintenance director for Lake County schools.

Corr also explained that sneezing, runny noses and headaches — typical allergic reactions to mold — can also be caused by factors such as strong cologne or pollen brought in from the playground.

“There are a lot of things in our everyday lives that can cause us to believe we have an indoor air-quality issue,” he said.

Many of the complaints, however, prompted officials to take action — throwing out books, replacing ceiling tiles or cleaning air-conditioning systems and desks, tables and carpet. Some portable classrooms were recommended for permanent closure.

In some cases, however, districts did not perform cleanups as recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other experts. For instance, mold has been allowed to remain in place instead of being removed immediately. And workers do not always wear protective gear.

School employees said the situation might be worse than it appears on paper because some air-quality issues are never reported. A lot of teachers, in this poor economy, worry about losing their jobs or being retaliated against.

And employees are frustrated that some problems that are reported never seem to get resolved.

An Osceola County employee pleaded for help at Denn John Middle in Kissimmee in late 2008: “200 — whole building is molding. The classes, the halls. Please come and see for yourself. This is not a new problem. Only new students and parents to complain.”

In a few parts of Florida, parents have spoken out about schools that seemed to make their youngsters sick.

Many times those districts did not make a concerted effort to fix problems until lawyers and the media got involved, said some of the parents who sued the Broward County school district over mold in 2003.

The State Attorney’s Office in Broward investigated and brought its findings to a grand jury, which released a report criticizing school officials not only for dragging their feet on getting rid of mold but also for having schools so poorly constructed and maintained that they constantly leaked.

Broward spent millions of dollars on repairs, but a number of statewide changes the grand jury recommended never happened.

Richard J. Shaughnessy, director of The University of Tulsa Indoor Air Program and one of America’s foremost air-quality experts, said the situation might not change unless the public pushes the issue.

“It has to start,” Shaughnessy said, “with parents becoming involved and demanding that schools address these types of problems across the country.”

Denise-Marie Balona can be reached at dbalona@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470 or 386-228-5008.

• John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
• Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
• Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
• www.Microshield-ES.com

Story by wftv.com
OVIEDO, Fla.

Mold is making Oviedo’s main fire station so dangerous it had to be shut down. Contracted crews were at Fire Station Number 1 Tuesday trying to get a rid of the costly mold problem.

The fire chief told WFTV that mold was detected about four weeks ago inside the insulation that surrounds the duct work in the ceiling. The building is 20 years old and he says the duct work had a regular cleaning just last year.

The city is spending $15,000 for mold remediation and shut the fire station down on October 17, leaving nearby residents wondering about safety.

“I’m just wondering where the nearest closest fire station is if I have a fire,” resident Fred Burrow said.

The fire crew and their equipment are about one mile away at Fire Station Number 2 in downtown. Despite the relocation of the fire crews, the fire chief says service shouldn’t be affected for anyone in Oviedo. The mayor said that downtown fire crews can sometimes respond faster to calls in station number one’s district.

Sharon Buxbaum, who owns a daycare next to the fire station, is more concerned about the health of the firefighters and not their location.

“Because of who they are and their professionalism, I know we will get the same service,” she said.

The chief hopes the station will be up and running in two weeks.

The fire chief also said that no firefighters or staff, who worked inside the station, have reported any health problems related to the mold.

• John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
• Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
• Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
• www.Microshield-ES.com