Workers clean mold from Head Start

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Workers clean mold from Head Start

By Gazette News Services

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/04/15/news/wyoming/70-

clean.txt

POWELL -- State officials are working to clean up mold that has

triggered allergic reactions in some volunteers and children at the

Absaroka Head Start facility in the basement of the First United

Methodist Church.

Brittney Day said she started experiencing symptoms -- runny nose,

headaches, sore throat -- as soon as she started volunteering at the

facility last August. On March 13, workers found the mold while

cleaning up.

" We found it in the baseboard heater, being blown into the air and

on the kitchen wall -- black mold, right there in plain sight, " Day

said.

Barb Herrick, the health and safety specialist for Absaroka Head

Start in Worland, said the agency was " following procedures to get

it cleaned up. " According to Dr. Barber, an environmental

epidemiologist with the Wyoming Department of Health, there are no

state or federal guidelines saying how much mold constitutes a

health risk. But if mold can be clearly seen or smelled, it could

constitute a danger, he said.

Published on Saturday, April 15, 2006.