NO CLASS: Baltimore City Community College closed

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Harboring Mold

Community College Closes Parts of Harbor Campus Building Due to Mold

Contamination

http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=11673

Klein

Baltimore City Paper

NO CLASS: Baltimore City Community College closed the second and

third floors of its Bard Building in September 2005. By Randall

Leonard

You wouldn't know by walking in the door of the Bard Building of

Baltimore City Community College's Harbor Campus, on the corner of

East Lombard Street and Market Place, that the building is

contaminated with mold. In fact, if you asked the security guard at

the front desk why the second floor is not accessible, he probably

couldn't tell you. But in 2005, potentially toxic mold was

identified in the building, and now the entire second and third

floors have been closed, offices relocated, and equipment

disinfected. College administrators are saying little about the

situation, however, and students have not been told why their

classes have been moved.

Contrary to the claims of facilities staff, the presence of mold in

the Bard Building has been a problem for nearly a decade, according

to school faculty members.

" The mold has been here for a long time, " says Sally Dimarco,

coordinator for the Apparel Technology department. During her 28

years as a Baltimore City Community College employee, Dimarco says

the situation has been brought to the attention of two

administrations twice—both in the past decade.

" They were aware of it and they refused to do anything about the

problem because it was just too expensive, " she says. " There were

years when I would return to the campus and, in our design labs

downstairs, there was green mold everywhere. " When she complained

of " black stuff " on the ceiling tiles, Dimarco says, the tiles would

be removed and replaced.

In 2001, the college put forward a $2.5 million plan to permanently

fix a problem with water leaks in the building. " That concept was

not adopted, so no work was done, " says ph Isaac, executive

director of the school's facilities, planning, and operations.

But when library personnel reported seeing mold on the law books on

the second floor last May, the college finally gave the situation

some serious attention. The college hired an environmental firm,

Advanced Air Analysis, to analyze the concentration and types of

mold present in the library. On Aug. 2, 2005, before the sampling

results were returned, Computer and Information Technology Services

staff reported seeing mold on the third floor of the Bard Building,

prompting additional sampling, this time on each of the building's

five floors.

According to a Nov. 11, 2005, memo released by the college's interim

president, M. III, samples collected from the second,

third, and fourth floors were heavily contaminated with three types

of mold: aspergillus, penicillium, and cladosporium. Due to the

confirmed presence of mold, the college closed the second and third

floors of the building—moving part of the library to the first

floor, Computer and Information Technology Services to the Liberty

Campus on Liberty Heights Avenue, and Apparel Technology from the

third floor to the fifth floor of the Bard Building before classes

began on Sept. 6.

Once word of the mold was passed to college faculty and staff,

several employees working in the Bard Building came forward with

health concerns.

" There were complaints from several either faculty and/or staff, "

Isaac says. " As a result we contacted Concentra [health services]. "

According to Isaac, the state medical director spoke to the Bard

Building occupants about the issues with mold. Various human-

resources staff and administrators refused to comment on the details

of staff health complaints.

According to Isaac, there was no identification of stachybotrys—a

toxin-producing black mold—in the samples collected from the Bard

Building, but both aspergillus and penicillium have been linked to

health problems. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, infections caused by inhaled aspergillus spores can

be fatal, though susceptibility to such infections is mainly

restricted to those with immune deficiencies. Molds of the

penicillium variety have been associated with such health problems

as pneumonia and urinary tract infections. Harriet Ammann, senior

toxicologist at Washington State Department of Health and an expert

on indoor mold contamination, says some species of aspergillus and

penicillium can produce mycotoxins, chemicals that, when inhaled or

ingested by humans, can be toxic, mutagenic, or carcinogenic.

Despite the fact that some faculty members say they have been

dealing with mold at the Bard Building for a decade, Isaac says

that's not the case. He acknowledges that water has been leaking

into the building for years, but he says this is the first time mold

has been identified as a problem.

" We've had infiltration of water in the building, but not to this

extent—never with mold, " he says. According to Isaac, the Bard

Building, built in 1977, was poorly designed and constructed. He

cites the terra cotta tile siding and a wall sitting at a 45-degree

angle as the main culprits in allowing water into the building. " The

actual design of that wall is a California-style design, " he

says, " and is not for this weather, climate, we have here. "

land law requires that, since the college is state-funded, the

state Department of General Services manage building projects

exceeding $25,000. The Bard Building mold-remediation and renovation

project is expected to cost about $22 million, Isaac says.

requested permission from General Services to use emergency

procurement procedures to speed up the cleanup of the building. The

school submitted a " deficiency appropriation request " for $1.5

million from the state to begin the first phase of remediation. The

request is expected to be approved as part of the governor's budget

this month.

According to Ikotun, the college's current project manager

for the cleanup, and Ritchie Associates, a consulting and

design firm hired by the college, is continuing to assess the extent

of mold contamination in the Bard Building. Once the assessment is

complete, the company will present plans for Phase I of the cleanup,

which it expects can be completed by fall 2007. The second phase of

the remediation, if funded by the state, would begin in the coming

years, and would include re-cladding the entire building to keep

water out.

In the meantime, Sally Dimarco says that students and faculty are

dealing with the disruption to their classes and schedules as best

they can.

" We started classes one week late, but [the students] understood and

they don't complain, " she says. The one complaint she has

heard? " The design labs are too small. "

Other teachers, like English professor Ann Frazier, are looking

forward to getting back to their own offices and classrooms

eventually. For Frazier, there may even be an upside to all the

inconvenience. " They might actually paint my office, " she says.

Additional reporting by Wayne Dixon. Randall Leonard is a former

student at Baltimore City Community College, and Dixon is still a

student there. This story was written to appear in Baltimore City

Community College's student newspaper, The College Crier. The

administration, however, did not allow the paper to print the story.