Indoor Air Quality Solutions, IAQS

In 2003, a grand jury blasted the Broward County school system for taking too long to get rid of mold in classrooms and failing to repair leaky roofs and faulty air conditioners.

The panel outlined its concerns in a 44-page report, strongly recommending changes the state of Florida needed to make to force school districts to improve indoor-air quality while underscoring that children were especially vulnerable to the potentially harmful effects of mold.

Although Broward schools have since spent millions of dollars trying to fix its problems, the more sweeping statewide grand jury recommendations have been largely ignored.

A handful of South Florida lawmakers introduced bills in 2004 that would have required schools to aggressively monitor and address mold problems and even file progress reports with the state.

But the legislation never went anywhere. A Senate analyst pointed out that repairs would be expensive and Florida would be setting itself up for lawsuits if it identified its air-quality problems.

So, today, there still are no statewide rules in Florida governing how public schools should monitor, detect and handle air-quality problems in one of the hottest, most humid states in the country.

And years after the grand jury report, Florida schools continue to battle chronic mold and water-intrusion problems, according to an Orlando Sentinel investigation.

Wolfgang Halbig, a former risk manager for Lake County schools who is now a school-safety consultant, argues that if the Florida Legislature does not make districts fix mold problems, they will get worse.

The situation, he warned, is already being exacerbated by districts’ attempts to save money by raising the temperature in schools and shutting off the air conditioning in at least some portable classrooms at night, on weekends and during kids’ winter and summer vacations.

In recent years, Central Florida teachers, parents and others have filed thousands of complaints about indoor-air quality in schools — blaming their runny noses, headaches and respiratory distress on mold discovered in classrooms, cafeterias, media centers, locker rooms and even nurses’ quarters.

“The state needs to really get a handle on how serious the toxic mold problem is in Florida,” said Halbig, a former executive director of the National Institute for School and Workplace Safety who said he was let go from his job in Lake last year, in part because he confronted higher-level administrators about the district’s mold problems.

District officials said Halbig was let go simply because his annual contract expired. He never discussed mold issues with schools Superintendent Susan Moxley, said the district’s executive director of human resources, Laurie Marshall.

Although the presence of some mold in the air is normal, experts say it should not be allowed to multiply indoors. And mold found growing in a building should be removed immediately.

Joe Joyner, a recent past president of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, agreed that the Legislature holds the key to the problem. But there is no need for a new law, he said.

Lawmakers, facing major budgetary shortfalls, have slashed funding for school maintenance and renovations during the past several years to help districts afford basic operating costs such as electricity, paper and teacher salaries.

“I don’t see any problems with the standards at all,” said Joyner, referring to guidelines set by various environmental-health groups such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “I see a problem with the funding to make sure we can maintain our buildings.”

Researchers at the University of Central Florida, who discovered in a 2006 study that schools in Florida and some other states are chronically moldy and humid, have said that without substantial funding increases for maintenance, the situation will not improve much.

Tallahassee attorney Mark Levine, who has represented school employees in mold-related lawsuits, said the root of the problem is fourfold: poorly trained maintenance workers, long-neglected buildings, air-conditioning systems that were not designed for Florida’s weather and administrators who are slow to acknowledge problems.

Levine said doctors have testified in court that school officials have refused to order environmental tests to help decide whether employees with respiratory distress could go back to work.

“If they [school officials] do have these environmental tests, it’s going to prove positive and then a cleanup must ensue,” Levine said. “They don’t have money for a cleanup, so they’d just as soon not know.”

Halbig said Lake district officials are so anxious about the public finding out about their mold battles, they advise employees to avoid using the word “mold” in public documents, including the e-mails they send to each other.

The lack of state regulation has left districts to devise their own methods for dealing with indoor-air quality.

In some cases, the Sentinel found during its investigation, districts allowed mold problems to linger for weeks or months. They also allowed janitors to remove mold without protective gear and workers to paint over mold and water-damaged areas instead of removing them — all of which can put students or employees at risk, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Denise Robinette, a Palm Beach County mom who started the nonprofit HealthyLiving Foundation in 2002 to educate people about indoor-air quality in schools and other buildings, said the state should require independent inspections and oversight.

“We allow the fox to watch the henhouse, with each school remediating where they ‘see’ fit — and most of them cover their eyes,” she said. “Why can’t the Health Departments look at schools? Why can’t there be third party inspections?”

Industry leaders and scholars agree that schools nationwide could drastically reduce the mold in buildings if they would do a better job repairing roofs and air conditioners, sealing up windows and doors, and fixing all water damage immediately.

“Mold has been, and continues to be, a maintenance issue,” said Cliston Brown, a spokesman for one of the country’s largest trade groups representing the property casualty industry, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

“Cleanup is fairly straightforward if water issues are addressed promptly,” he said.

Air-quality experts say one thing that will force educators, who are under immense pressure to boost test scores, to focus on the problem is proof that air quality affects student performance.

That is why the Indoor Air Quality Association, a nonprofit education and research group in Maryland, recently teamed up with The University of Tulsa to study whether there is a link between air quality and test scores and student absenteeism. At least some of their findings will be released in several weeks.

Along with faster repairs, parents want schools to do a better job keeping them informed — especially when large amounts of mold or the more dangerous, toxin-producing types are discovered on campus.

“Even the small amount could be causing harm to the students and staff,” said Richard Bolam, president of the PTA at Kaley Elementary in Orlando. “Toxins equal poisons and who knows the long-term effects.”

The National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities and various environmental-health agencies suggest that schools release and discuss what is found during inspections —especially when a private contractor was hired to do it — as quickly as possible.

But that often does not happen, parents and teachers said.

Lake County mom Sheila Baker wishes her son’s elementary school had been up front about its mold problems years ago. He kept getting sick at school and, today, as an adult, he still has breathing problems.

His former school, Roseborough Elementary in Mount Dora, was closed in 2000after being plagued by mold and other problems.

“It was later determined that mold was in the classroom, but it was not disclosed how bad the problem was,” Baker said. “My son still has to use an air purifier in his room and he is now [an adult].”

A South Florida legislator who co-sponsored one of the bills filed in 2004 to require schools to make improvements said state leaders could not pinpoint back then the magnitude of schools’ air-quality problems.

If they are, indeed, widespread and chronic, they should be fixed — no matter what it costs, said state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D- West Palm Beach.

“But what scares me is where we, as taxpayers, would get the money to do those repairs,” she said. “I shudder to think about shutting down hundreds or dozens of schools and rebuilding them. Think of what that would cost.”

Bill Smith, facilities director for Okaloosa County schools in the Florida Panhandle, says revamping his district’s air-quality program about 10 years ago took a lot of work initially.

But, afterward, building maintenance became easier, he said. Complaints dropped drastically.

After Okaloosa adopted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Tools for Schools” program, it replaced roofs, tightened doors and windows. It even changed the size of ceiling tiles and started using tile in portable classrooms instead of carpet to reduce allergens such as mold.

Complaints about faulty air-conditioning systems and teachers and students with flu-like symptoms dropped from 75 in 1994 to fewer than 15 in 1999 — an improvement that led the district to become one of the first in the country to earn an award for air-quality excellence from the U.S. EPA.

The agency’s “Tools for Schools” program, which is offered for free to schools nationwide, is the same one the grand jury in Broward recommended seven years ago.

Today, Smith said Okaloosa only gets a handful of complaints a year.

“EPA will bend over backwards to help you,” he said.

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

Though invisible, it is the most basic, life-sustaining feature of your home. Preventive measures, ventilation, and daily habits play a role in protecting your home’s precious supply.

THREATS TO THE BREATHING SPACE (or ‘Things to Worry About’)

1. Dirt and Dust: Outdoor soil can contain fertilizer, pesticides and more. Tracked in, it becomes part of the indoor dust, which already holds dander, dust mites, plastics, possibly lead or asbestos from indoor sources, etc. As dust becomes airborne, these substances may enter the body and cause symptoms ranging from asthma and allergy _are-ups to even nervous system damage and cancer.

2. Mold: Airborne mold spores and mold fragments can trigger asthma and allergy episodes.

3. VOCs: Volatile organic compounds are found in cleaning liquids, paints, solvents and many more household supplies. They volatize or “o_ gas” into the air. Not all are harmful, but at high levels, many can cause a range of symptoms from short-term irritation to more ominous organ damage and cancer. The impact of lower levels and of mixtures of VOCs is under discussion or unknown, but reducing exposure is generally a good policy.

4. Formaldehyde: This VOC is used in a wide variety of household products. Manufacturers have scaled back — but in many cases not eliminated — its use. It is a known carcinogen and may also trigger asthma attacks and irritate the eyes and respiratory system. O_ gassing can continue for years, decreasing over time.

5. Asbestos: Found in some insulation, _reproo_ng materials, acoustic tile and “popcorn” ceilings, these tiny particles can cause lung-tissue damage and cancer. Asbestos containing materials are harmless as long as they stay intact, but disintegration frees the _bers to enter the airspace and the lungs.

6. Lead: Damaging to the nervous system, lead can enter the air as dust. Blood lead levels have dropped dramatically since the 1980s, indicating that unleaded gasoline and strategies regarding lead paint and lead pipes are working. Continued vigilance in the home is recommended, especially if your home is older.

7. Moisture: Water leaks and high relative humidity encourage mold growth, dust mite proliferation and increased formaldehyde emissions from building materials, furnishings and other household items. These irritants can trigger allergy and asthma symptoms.

8. Carbon Monoxide: Fuel-burning appliances and idling cars in attached garages can release carbon monoxide into the home, causing about 500 preventable deaths each year. The gas causes thousands more to become ill.

9. Radon: Radioactive gas can cause lung cancer — no smoking necessary. The EPA estimates radon causes 21,000 preventable deaths each year. Radon testing is quite inexpensive and almost effort-free.

3 ACTION PRINCIPLES (or ‘The General Idea’)

1. Eliminate; Often, the most reliable method of protecting yourself from unhealthy exposures in the home is simply to make sure harmful materials and contaminants are not present. Building or furnishing carefully with less hazardous materials, as well as proper cleaning eliminates many health threats.

2. Separate; When removal is not advisable or not possible, reduce exposure by creating a sealed barrier. For example, tight wall construction keeps potentially hazardous insulation particles out of the living space.

3. Ventilate; Reduce remaining air contaminants by regularly letting stale air out and fresh air in. Balancing in and out airflows in this process provides fresh air for your family and prevents a vacuum from forming and drawing air from a dangerous source like the furnace exhaust.

From the Healthy House Institute and the Home Ventalation Institute.

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

By Denise-Marie Balona, Orlando SentinelIn,

A grand jury blasted the Broward County school system for taking too long to get rid of mold in classrooms and failing to repair leaky roofs and faulty air conditioners.

The panel outlined its concerns in a 44-page report, strongly recommending changes the state of Florida needed to make to force school districts to improve indoor-air quality while underscoring that children were especially vulnerable to the potentially harmful effects of mold.

Although Broward schools have since spent millions of dollars trying to fix its problems, the more sweeping statewide grand jury recommendations have been largely ignored.

A handful of South Florida lawmakers introduced bills in 2004 that would have required schools to aggressively monitor and address mold problems and even file progress reports with the state.

But the legislation never went anywhere. A Senate analyst pointed out that repairs would be expensive and Florida would be setting itself up for lawsuits if it identified its air-quality problems.

So, today, there still are no statewide rules in Florida governing how public schools should monitor, detect and handle air-quality problems in one of the hottest, most humid states in the country.

And years after the grand jury report, Florida schools continue to battle chronic mold and water-intrusion problems, according to an Orlando Sentinel investigation.

Wolfgang Halbig, a former risk manager for Lake County schools who is now a school-safety consultant, argues that if the Florida Legislature does not make districts fix mold problems, they will get worse.

The situation, he warned, is already being exacerbated by districts’ attempts to save money by raising the temperature in schools and shutting off the air conditioning in at least some portable classrooms at night, on weekends and during kids’ winter and summer vacations.

In recent years, Central Florida teachers, parents and others have filed thousands of complaints about indoor-air quality in schools — blaming their runny noses, headaches and respiratory distress on mold discovered in classrooms, cafeterias, media centers, locker rooms and even nurses’ quarters.

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

By Denise-Marie Balona, Orlando Sentinel

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.”

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

By Denise-Marie Balona, Orlando Sentinel

Six-year-old Anthony Aliseo was miserable. He had headaches, pressure between his eyes, trouble breathing and, occasionally, suffered the indignity of vomiting in front of his classmates.

Over two years, the youngster was in and out of the doctor’s office for constant sinus and respiratory infections. Cara Aliseo watched her son endure 70-plus allergy injections, two CAT scans and then two surgeries to drain his clogged sinuses.

She could not figure out what was causing the boy to be so sick — until another mom at his elementary school mentioned the campus was being treated for mold.

Once she moved Anthony to another school, she said, his health problems vanished.

Aliseo and several other parents sued the Broward County school district, and she settled out of court in 2007.

Despite growing legal claims across the country involving indoor air quality, there is also no generally accepted standard for how much mold can be in a room before it becomes unsafe. That’s because sensitivity levels can vary widely from person to person.

If mold is growing on the ceiling or inside the wall of a classroom, some kids will not be affected at all. Others, however, might experience flu-like symptoms such as runny noses, coughing and breathing difficulties.

Some types of mold emit toxins that can elicit more severe responses.

For example, Aspergillus and Stachybotrys, which have forced the closure of homes and schools across the country, have been linked to lung and respiratory infections. Children are especially vulnerable, health experts say, because their organs are still developing and they take in more air relative to their body size than adults.

Because it is hard to predict how any one person will react, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Environmental Protection suggest that all molds be treated the same and be removed immediately when found growing indoors.

But pediatricians and allergists urge parents not to panic if mold is discovered in schools. Instead, they said, parents should be asking questions about where the mold is located, how it got there and what school officials are doing to get rid of it.

“I don’t think they should be freaking out, but I think it’s definitely something they should be concerned about,” said Stephen Kimura, a Pensacola allergist who is immediate past president of the Florida Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Society.

He has seen a substantial increase in the number of children and teachers coming to him with symptoms they believe are related to mold in schools since Hurricane Ivan and then Hurricane Dennis ravaged the Florida Panhandle in 2004 and 2005.

Many schools were left with roof damage and water leaks, Kimura said.

“It’s a tough issue to remediate because mold is so pervasive,” he said. “Unless you strip the walls down to the studs and take out the insulation and redo that, you’re not going to completely get rid of it.”

Thanai Pongdee, an allergist with Mayo Clinic Florida in Jacksonville, also pointed out that children themselves bring allergens to school on their clothing. Schools may not realize they are harboring a variety of allergens in carpet, upholstered furniture, pillows and stuffed animals, Pongdee said.

“I know mold gets a lot of popular press,” he said, “but if you look at dust mites and animal dander, those are key players as well.”

Mold is a naturally occurring part of Florida’s warm, humid climate. Mold spores continually waft through the air indoors and outside.

What becomes problematic is when those spores come into contact with moisture – a roof leak, a liquid spill or high humidity, for example – and are allowed to multiply and form colonies inside buildings. Mold in classrooms can be especially concerning because these are small areas with limited air flow where children and school employees spend hours at a time.

If moms and dads think their kid’s’ school is making them sick, experts say they should keep a detailed log of children’s symptoms, including when they occur, and confer with their doctors.

Broward mom Cara Aliseo suggested parents educate themselves about mold and push officials to do any necessary repairs quickly and correctly.

Part of the problem at her son’s former school, she said, was that the mold clean-ups were not done the right way so mold kept coming back. In the end, most of the campus had to be rebuilt.

“I know if we didn’t fight the way we did — me and teachers and parents screaming and going to meetings and causing trouble — it never would have been fixed,” she said.

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