High mold levels close 8 classrooms at Rippowam

[Guest guest]

High mold levels close 8 classrooms at Rippowam

By Gosier

Staff Writer

Norwalk Advocate Tue, 19 Sep 2006 2:21 AM PDT

Norwalk, CT

Published September 19 2006

http://www.norwalkadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-

nor.aite6sep19,0,3828794.story?track=rss

STAMFORD -- Eight classrooms were closed on the second floor of

Rippowam Middle School yesterday because of elevated mold levels

that turned up in air-quality tests over the weekend, officials said.

One of the rooms belonged to the Academy of Information Technology

and Engineering.

Advertisement

Students were reshuffled to other classrooms for the day, district

officials said. Four rooms were to be cleaned last night and

reopened today; the other four will be cleaned tonight and reopened

tomorrow, said Al Barbarotta, facilities director for the city and

school district.

Concerns about air quality have lingered on the building's second

floor for the past few weeks because of flooding Aug. 25 and a

roofing project that, according to teachers, has knocked dust from

the ceiling during school hours.

The tests were conducted because the district did not have time to

fully test the second floor during the weekend of Sept. 9 and 10,

Barbarotta said. Two teachers who fell ill Sept. 8 prompted concerns

over air quality.

This time, the entire second floor was tested. District officials

closed the eight classrooms because they had more than 1,000 mold

spores per cubic meter of air, according to Barbarotta and an

official with AMC Technology of Stratford, the firm that conducted

the testing.

Barbarotta said the eight rooms showed readings of 1,100 spores and

higher, but could not provide more specifics. The AMC official would

not offer further comment without the city's permission.

Barbarotta called the 1,000-spore standard arbitrary, however, and

said city officials picked it after grappling with the lack of state

and federal standards for safe mold levels in schools.

The lack of standards makes it difficult to use testing to determine

whether the air is safe, said Dr. nie Lee, the city's public

health director.

" This is not an exact science, " he said.

Standards are lacking because people's reactions to mold vary

widely, and because there's no scientific evidence for calling a

particular level unhealthy, according to the state Department of

Public Health.

The mold concerns began with the Aug. 25 flooding, when rainwater

seeped through the roof and soaked dozens of ceiling tiles. Because

of the flooding and the possibility of mold, the district conducted

tests when the two teachers fell ill Sept. 8 with breathing problems.

It turned out that one teacher's illness was unrelated to air

quality; the cause of the other's sickness was unclear.

Barbarotta and AITE Principal Gross said they heard no

complaints of sickness from students or teachers last week. Gross

said he received a complaint about noise on the roof Wednesday, and

told the contractor about it.

Teachers say the smell of tar on the roof, as well as pounding on

the roof and a rain of dust in classrooms, has exacted a toll.

Teachers have complained of headaches and nausea since school began

late last month, AITE teacher Dagny Forrester said.

Another AITE teacher, Walter Domeika, said students have asked to

leave classrooms because of the smell.

The tar smell was gone last week because the tarring work was

completed Sept. 9-10. Workers tarred the roof after school, but the

teachers said they noticed the smell when the equipment was being

warmed up at the end of the school day.

Forrester, Domeika and another AITE teacher, Guy Semon, sent a

letter about the problems to The Advocate and city officials

Thursday.

" There is hammering, cutting, heavy pounding, and dropping of heavy

materials on the roof during the students' school day, " they

wrote. " This is causing varying amounts of debris to fall from the

ceiling into the classrooms where students and staff have spent days

inhaling the particle-filled air. "

The identified themselves in the letter as building representatives

for the Stamford Education Association, the union for the city's

public school teachers.

They wrote the letter on their own, rather than getting input from

the union's central office, Forrester said.

They questioned why the air was not tested for particulates besides

mold.

Lee said cleaning the dusty rooms is the better solution because --

Êlike mold --Êdust particles lack standards to guide city officials

in determining how much is too much.

" It's not as simple as people saying, 'It's dusty in here,' " he

said. " If you have a room or an environment that's very dusty, the

thing you do is you clean up the dust. "

Barbarotta said he told school custodians to diligently clean the

rooms. He said construction crews have taken measures to control

dust kicked up by construction vehicles outside the school.

He said major work on the roof has been confined to after-school

hours, but workers were moving materials around during the day

because they were pushing to finish the project, which was held up

by the Aug. 25 flooding.

" In a perfect world, you don't have these issues, " Barbarotta

said. " We talk to the contractors and ask them to be careful, but if

they're carrying something and drop it, you hear a 'thud' on the

roof. "

" It's very difficult to do this kind of extensive project and not

create dust " or noise, said Barbarotta, president and chief

executive officer of AFB Construction Management in Trumbull, which

contracts with the city and the school district to manage its

facilities.

He said the work should be done within 10 days.