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How can I prevent school mold from becoming a problem at my school? What can I do NOW?
1. Improving Indoor Air Quality (including removal of the excess moisture that molds feed on)
The EPA has developed a kit for Educators (Tools for Schools) that contains Indoor Air Quality, Tools For Schools - part of this contains an Administrative Staff Checklist, which you should find very helpful.
This checklist discusses seven major topic areas:
General Cleanliness
Drain Traps
Excess Moisture
Thermal Comfort
Local Exhaust Fans
Ventilation
Printing and Duplicating Equipment
PDF Version of this Checklist http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/pdfs/kit/checklists/adminstaffchklst.doc
more helpful publications from the EPA are found on: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/pubs.html
2. Monitoring Indoor Humidity:
The following is from an Indoor Air Quality professional, re: controlling humidity, a very cost effective approach: "School is out and less attention is being paid to conditions in the classrooms. It's raining outside and carpets are being wet-cleaned. The relative humidity is ---. Walls may be wet from rain or an overcooling a/c. The a/c is "on" or "off", no one cares. This is the time of the year that mold grows in schools depending the %RH. Relative humidity levels above 60%RH create near condensation under carpet or near any cool surface. Three plus days of high humidity starts mold growing. The longer the condition persist, the more the mold grows. During these occasional humid times, mold growth accumulates and finally becomes noticed. If I was responsible for mold in a school, I would have a couple of these %RH meters in the cool damp parts of the school. Radio Shack has a %RH meter with an alarm. If the alarm activated, I would reduce the relative humidity ASAP. Find the water leak or locate source of humidity in a couple days. In wet climates or below grade space require dehumidification to keep the %RH below 50%RH. Most people in charge do not understand the %RH/mold growth relationship. If I had a mold sensitive child, I would personally monitor the %RH in my child's school throughout the summer....The way it works now is, wait for somebody to complain next fall, and be surprised. Finally after enough complaints, they get an expert to figure out what went wrong. By then, the summer humidity has declined. They are lucky to find the mold much less understand where the moisture come from.
To me, a relative humidity alarm is as important as a fire alarm. The indoor humidity meters are found as follows: Good hardware stores, Radio Shack, Wal-Mart ($15) All so on the web like Oregon Scientific, LaCrosse Technology, The good meters have "High/Low" memory. P.S. More schools are opting for humidity control, <50%RH during the evenings/vacation. Though most schools are crossing their fingers and don't want to hear about a pro-active approach. After a half million dollar clean-up, some are going ahead with a $25,000 preventive measure to control the humidity."
3. Secondly, being proactive about leaks and moisture entering the building is important - as is maintaining the Heating and Ventilating System according to manufacturer's recommendations. Often, comparatively inexpensive, deferred maintenance is the cause of millions of dollars in repairs.
4. When building schools, do not build in areas that flood or have water present. Surprisingly, many sick schools were built on marshes and even in ponds and waterways, where the water was to have been drained away but this was unsuccessful! See to it that the building is constructed properly to avoid leaks later - don't cut corners!
Example of how a Maine school district (School Administrative District 40) is planning a school that will not grow mold:
SAD 40 Board Votes to Keep Going with Healthy School Concept
Lincoln County News - Damarsicotta,ME,USA
... He said our grandparents, who "walked uphill both ways to school",
were nonetheless right when they said they did not have the mold and moisture problems ...
SAD 40 Board Votes to Keep Going with Healthy School Concept
http://www.mainelincolncountynews.com/index.cfm?ID=8264
Story date: 08/04/2004
By Mike Colbert
The SAD 40 board voted to keep going forward with the healthy school concept as outlined by architect Loren Belida of the H.L.Turner Group.
The school district is using the Turner Group to assist with a design concept for the proposed new middle school.
Key to the concept is maintaining a small school atmosphere for the projected 300 students who would attend seventh and eighth grades at the proposed new school, to be located on land adjacent to the high school in Waldoboro.
Air quality, heat, light, acoustics and comfort “is what it boils down to,” said Belida. “Unfortunately it’s not done in a lot of buildings.”
Belida said a lot of what his company has learned about problems with buildings comes from doing “forensic work” for schools that have buildings that have developed serious problems.
Mold problems, for example are addressed in the new concept before they even happen. Belida said mold was something that happened after the fact. “The real enemy is moisture,” said Belida.
He said often times conventional buildings fail to address the issues.
“All buildings leak,” said Belida. “It’s a matter of how you manage it.”
He said our grandparents, who “walked uphill both ways to school,” were nonetheless right when they said they did not have the mold and moisture problems we have in modern buildings.
“That’s because they were often made of masonry,” said Belida, adding that large masonry buildings could absorb and release thousands of gallons of water.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, when more buildings were built out of steel and glass and sheetrock, the hydric buffer capacity was lost.
Using architectural elements as simple as a pitched roof with an appropriate overhang helps to reduce the problem, Belida indicated.
“Then why are we having moisture in Warren if we have a pitched roof?” asked board member Carl Cunningham.
“It’s more ground related,” said Belida. A cement slab placed on sand can cause moisture migration up through the slab, said Belida. He said that the use of gravel and a vapor barrier would help to prevent that from happening.
Passive and active architectural elements in the new design also allow for maximal use of daylight, fresh air and heat recapture.
“Anything we propose to you is not necessarily going to cost you more money,” said Belida, who backed up his argument with hard data.
Belida said that the average square footage cost for constructing a middle school in Maine is $118 a square foot.
Although the initial cost for the proposed new school in Waldoboro is somewhat higher at $125 a square foot, Belida said that operation and maintenance savings, and long term replacement costs would more than pay for the initial extra expenditure of $7 per square foot.
With low-tech latent heat recovery systems contributing, Belida said “The energy savings alone adds up to $8 a square foot over the life of the bond.” The bond would be for 20 years.
“As oil prices rise, your cost component for oil savings improves,” said Belida.
The board is struggling to meet state deadlines for concept approval before the proposed middle school goes before voters this fall.
The process was delayed last April when the Middle School Building Committee was directed by the board to re-examine all the options available to the district before proceeding in any one direction.
About Belida’s presentation, Cunningham said, “I enjoyed it very much. It was very educational to me.”
Parent Gail Hawes, from Union, said, “I don’t like the middle school idea, but if we’re going to build it, [Belida’s presentation] makes a lot of sense.”
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