03/14/08 - More testing is needed to determine the safety of the classrooms before architects and engineers will go in to investigate the mold

The Little Children Of Hamilton Avenue "Were Never In Danger", But The Big Strong Architects And Engineers Told School Officials That "More Testing Was Needed" Before They "Can Go In And Investigate" The Cause Of The Mold.

Betty "You Can Trust Me" Sternberg Knows What's Best For The Little Children Of Hamilton Avenue And Glenville Schools.

The Insensitive And Patronizing School Superintendent Betty Sternberg Thinks That Hamilton Avenue Parents Are A Bunch Of Silly Little Cry Babies For Standing Up And Protecting Their Children.

Quote:

“I don’t want to minimize the disruption and the hardship, but I also want to say that sometimes I have found that children are more easily adaptable to this kind of thing than our adults,” Betty Sternberg said. “It’s incumbent upon the adults involved in this to make the best of a difficult situation.”

For The Record:

If A Small Child Says No To Betty "You Can Trust Me" Sternberg, Then That Child Would Most Likely Be Suspended From School.

With Return of Mold, Students Are Displaced
New York Times

By SARAH N. LYNCH

FOR nearly three years, students at the Hamilton Avenue School have been reporting to class in temporary buildings while their school was being rebuilt after an outbreak of mold prompted the district...

...long construction delays have continued to wear their patience as their children have had to make due without a gymnasium and other facilities that children in other Greenwich schools take for granted. This month, they received more bad news: The mold is back.

This time, it was discovered in the temporary buildings after the school brought in a consultant in February to fix a leak in the roof...

...The Greenwich Boys and Girls Club offered to take in 75 children for the week to help ease the burden, but none of the children received regular instruction ...

...Furious, parents staged a picket line outside the Board of Education building on March 3. That evening, they returned to the building for an emergency meeting where they were told that all Hamilton Avenue children would be dispersed by grade level and class to six schools throughout the town, possibly for the rest of the year. School officials hope the rebuilt school will be ready by the fall.

The solution did not please many parents.

“I think they are using our children like little pawn pieces in a chess game,” said Mina Bibeault, who has two young children in Hamilton Avenue. “They can just move the kids around without considering anything. They knew there were leaks in the building.”...

...But the series of incidents has revived long-held feelings among some parents that their school gets short shrift because it is in a poorer section of town. When they picketed, some of the parents held signs that read: “Rich town, poor school.”

Laura DiBella, the former president of the Hamilton Avenue School Parent Teacher Association, said officials were slow to respond from the beginning of the mold problem. “I’m not saying this particular Board of Education or this particular group of people under the superintendent feels that way, but a lot of people assume that poor people are stupid and that it’s easy to get things by them,” Mrs. DiBella said....

But Betty "You Can Trust Me" Sternberg Says Mima Bibeault And Laura DiBella Are Wrong...

...Sternberg said that in her year and a half as superintendent, she had “looked very carefully at issues of equitable allocation of resources” and that Hamilton Avenue had “received more resources because they have greater needs than other communities.”...

FOR ONCE BETTY "You Can Trust Me" STERNBERG IS RIGHT

FOR EXAMPLE:

Hamilton Avenue Children Got Exposed To More Contamination Than Any Other Greenwich School Child. In fact, They Got So Much More Contamination That School District Architects And Engineers Want More Tests Before They Can "Go In To" Investigate The Cause Of The Contamination.

....The Board of Education set up a committee to investigate the causes of the mold, said Nancy Weissler, the chairwoman of the board. Officials were told last week that more testing is needed to determine the safety of the temporary buildings before architects and engineers can go in to investigate the cause of the mold.

ALSO:

Schools didn't follow mold policy
Greenwich Time, CT - Mar 13, 2008
By Hoa Nguyen

Five years ago, when mold problems began surfacing at the old Hamilton Avenue School and other buildings, school district officials ...

03/05/08 - The Unionized (Teamstewrs) School District Custodial Staff Are Suggesting That There Might Be A School District Coverup At Ham Ave School.

MORE NEWS ABOUT FORMALDEHYDE IN TRAILERS:

Toll of toxic trailers
New Statesman, UK - Mar 13, 2008
Emails from its legal department advised that testing for the toxin "would imply Fema ownership of the issue" and that the agency would have no option but ...
FEMA knew its trailers posed a risk Canon City Daily Record
Documents Feed Debate on FEMA Trailers The Associated Press
Trailers don’t pass muster Helena Independent Record

Formaldehyde Exposure Standards

On December 4, 1987, the U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a comprehensive regulation covering occupational exposure to formaldehyde at 29 CFR 1910.1048. This rule reduced the permissible exposure limits (PELs) to 0.75 part formaldehyde per million parts of air (ppm) as an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA), and established a 2 ppm 15-minute short term exposure limit (STEL).

The comprehensive standard also included an "action level" of 0.5 ppm, measured as an 8-hour TWA, and provisions for employee formaldehyde exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, recordkeeping, emergency procedures, preferred methods to control formaldehyde exposure, selection of personal protective equipment, & hazard communication. OSHA's ruling was based upon consideration of new evidence including animal bioassays and epidemiological evidence, and the recognition of formaldehyde as a potential occupational carcinogen and its irritating and sensitizing effects.

Shame on

---

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Free speech is about as good as cause as the world has ever known. But, like the poor, it is always with us and gets shoved aside in favour of things which seem at some given moment more vital.
- Heywood Brown, The Miracle of Debs, "New York World", October 23, 1926

03/13/08 - Just How Much Are The Taxpayers Of Greenwich Paying Superintendent Betty Sternberg And Her Failed Administrators To Lie To The Public?

Betty "Pinocchio" Sternberg

HEADLINE:

An environmental consultant hired by the school district has said the ceiling of one of the classrooms affected by the roof leaks had mold growth.

LIE OF THE DAY:

Sternberg and other officials said design and construction flaws rather than maintenance shortcomings caused the mold problems at the modulars. They said roof leaks reported months earlier at the modulars were properly addressed and not connected to the mold found inside the walls and in the roof eaves.

STORY:

Schools didn't follow mold policy

By Hoa Nguyen
Greenwich Time - Staff Writer

Five years ago, when mold problems began surfacing at the old Hamilton Avenue School and other buildings, school district officials implemented a program to help identify and prevent similar problems from occurring in the future.

But now they admit the program was not uniformly put into practice across the district....

Greenwich Roundup says.... But, school officials did identify the mold in the modular classrooms over one year ago. The problem is that they hid the mold from Glenville and Hamilton Avenue School parents.

Please read....

03/09/08 - Town Employees: Sternberg's Crew Knew - Mold Covered Tiles Replaced Over One Year Ago.

Soon school district Officials will admit they knew about the mold in the contaminated modular classrooms over one year ago. After that school district officials will admit that they replaced molded cieling tiles at the contaminated modular classroom. Then the school district officials will admit they hid the contamination from Glenville and Hamilton Avenue parents.

.... "Everyone was trained," Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg said of the program called Tools for Schools. "It was variably implemented from school to school."....

Greenwich Roundup says...... Obviously. But didn't Superintendent Betty Sternberg say, "I'll hold the staff accountable." Please read....

03/05/08 - The Joke Of The Day - "I'll hold the staff accountable," Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg promised. - Yeah Right.

... Tools for Schools is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program designed to raise awareness about air quality issues, including assembling committees of teachers, administrators, parents and custodians who work together to identify early indicators of mold and other problems.

School officials came under fire on Tuesday night from the Board of Estimate and Taxation Budget Committee, which questioned why mold problems discovered at the Hamilton Avenue School modular buildings were identified only a couple of weeks ago. They should have been more aggressive in scrutinizing possible mold situations, committee members said, because it was mold that forced the rebuilding of the old Hamilton Avenue School and the purchase of the $3 million modular buildings several years ago.....

Greenwich Roundup says.... The Board of Estimate and Taxation has a long history of suffering incompetent school district fools who are destroying the public schools and increasing the taxes on the single family home owner.

.... "I was frankly surprised," BET member Robert Stone said yesterday. "This is a lesson that clearly should have been learned four years ago."....

Greenwich Roundup says.... Why is Robert Stone "frankly surprised". Was he awake at the BET meetings when school district officials have repeatedly came asking for more and more tax money to pay for all the screw ups at Hamilton Avenue School.

.... Stone is calling on the district to implement a program to visually inspect classrooms and school space on a regular basis to ensure potential problems are caught early....

Greenwich Roundup says.... "Good Job Bob"

... BET members said that because taxpayers are going to have to shoulder the cost associated with this latest Hamilton Avenue School mold problem, the district must have a better prevention plan...

Greenwich Roupup says... If Betty Sternberg and her failed school administrators don't come clean the school district is going to need one hell of a litigation plan.

Eventually, this Board Of Education cover up is going to be exposed, when failed school administrators, architects, contractors, engineers and testing companies start getting sued by parents whose children were allowed to sit in a contaminated modular classroom for over one year.

A lot of school administrators and others knew about the contamination for more than a year.

Now these architects, contractors, engineers and testing companies had better make sure that Hamilton Avenue parents are getting full disclosure or they may find their butts in court face claims of substantial liability.

... "This is going to be something that we're going to have to prevent going forward," said Michael Mason, head of the BET budget committee....

JOKE OF THE DAY:

"People walked away with a general sense that progress is being made," said Mike Bodson, the Board of Education liaison for the school's building committee, as he spoke about a Hamilton Avenue School Building Tour led by the ever so efficient contractor, Worth Construction.

Shame on



Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
- President Ronald Regan

03/12/08 - Why Was It Ok To Remove Dumpsters Of Contaminated Plywood, But Not OK To Remove School Desks And Chairs?

Why Did School Maintenance Workers Need To Use Resporators And Tyveck Suits To Remove Plywood From The Walls Of The Modular Classrooms?

Did the maintenance workers use the same spacesuits to remove the childrens desks and chairs from the modular classrooms?

Why Isn't The Greenwich Time Speaking To Anyone Who Is Questioning Why Dumpsters Of Plywood Were Removed From The Modular Classrooms And Carted Away In Less Than
72 Hours?

Why is only Nancy Weissler, (Chairman of the Board of Education), Kim Eves, (Director of communication), Sue Wallerstein, (Assistant superintendent of business services), Damaris Rau (Hamilton Avenue School Principal) and the Greenwich Public School Website cited in today's Greenwich Time News Story?

Why arn't officials from the Greenwich Department of Health quoted in this story?

Could It Be That The Wet Contaminated Plywood's Glue Was Emitting Formaldehyde?

Like Some Town Employees Have Suggested.

Headline:

No mold hazard found at Ham Ave. modulars

Quote:

"We're talking about additional tests that need to be done," said Nancy Weissler, chairman of the Board of Education, adding that the testing will delay remediation by another week.

Story:

.... Because more testing is needed before items from the school can be safely removed from the contaminated site, that will delay when architects and engineers who are to investigate the cause of the mold can enter the structure and do their work. Until that happens, officials won't know the full extent of the mold problem and the type of remediation that will be necessary, school district officials told the Board of Estimate and Taxation's budget committee last night during a Town Hall meeting....

This whole thing about incomplete and misleading tests is just a dog and pony show.

Non of these tests are independently performed.

Why Is The Board Of Education Is Hiring And Paying The Test Takers?

Why aren't the proffessionals at the Greenwich Department of Health hirring, paying and evaluating independent test results?

How can Glenville and Hamilton Avenue School parents can trust this failed school administration?

Do you really trust Greenwich School Superintendent Betty Sternberg?

You are just as silly as you look if you really think the School Superintendent is going to remediate the contaminated modular classrooms that were KNOWINGLY used by little children for over one year.

The rest of the contamination evidence must be destroyed.

Here is what's really going to happen...

The school district has also asked Turner Construction Co. to provide cost estimates to demolish the modular structures and acquire other ones, said Sue Wallerstein, assistant superintendent of business services.

Parents should not worry one bit about the school administrators who take care of their little children, because every thing is going just fine.....

... "The kids are so happy," Rau said. Fourth- and fifth-graders relocated to Western Middle School are reaping the benefits of a larger cafeteria, she said.

"They are in awe of all the selections they have. They're holding up the lines just so they can look at everything."

Maybe, the little children "are in awe" of what healthy food tastes like when its not exposed to a "...higher level of nontoxic mold spores, but not high enough to be a health hazard...".

Eventually, this Board Of Education coverup is going to be exposed, when failed school administrators, architects, contractors, engineers and testing companies start getting sued by parents whose children were allowed to sit in a contaminated modular classroom for over one year.

A lot of school administrators and others knew about the contamination for more than a year.

Now these architects, contractors, engineers and testing companies had better make sure that Hamilton Avenue parents are getting full disclosure or they may find their butts in court face claims of substantial liability.

More Information From Sources Other Than
School Officials And Their Official Website:

03/09/08 - Town Employees: Sternberg's Crew Knew - Mold Covered Tiles Replaced Over One Year Ago.

03/05/08 - The Unionized (Teamstewrs) School District Custodial Staff Are Suggesting That There Might Be A School District Coverup At Ham Ave School.

Shame on


Removed And Destroyed Within 72 Hours.

This Police Officer Also Spoke About How Members Of His Union (The Teamsters) Were Concerned About Formaldehyde.

Further, This Greenwich Police Officer Was Very knowledgeable About The Contaminated Modular Classrooms And His Presention Was About 15 minutes Long.

==================================

Many Troubling Questions Remain About How School Superintendent Betty Sternberg Has Handled The Contaminated Modular Classrooms.

Why didn't Betty wait for testing before ripping out destroying plywood walls, but had to wait for multiple tests before allowing desks and chairs to be taken to relocation sites?

03/11/08 - Board of Education Chairwoman Nancy Weissler: Taxpayers Had Better Get Ready To Pay For School Board Mismanagement

Incompetent School Administrative Snakes
Are Going To Make
Greenwich Single Family Home Owners
Pay Through The Nose

At the opening of last night's Greenwich, the Representative Town Meeting, Board of Education Chairwoman Nancy Weissler told the RTM that school officials will make an interim appropriation request in April for the costs incurred from the recent relocation of Hamilton Avenue School students.

The town was forced to move the students to six other schools after mold was discovered in the modular units housing them while their own building is renovated.

What Board of Education Chairwoman Nancy Weissler faiiled to tell the RTM was that this relocation and tax increase might have been avoided if the Board Of Education had not covered up the modular school classroom mold problem over one year ago.

03/09/08 - Town Employees: Sternberg's Crew Knew - Mold Covered Tiles Replaced Over One Year Ago.

Shame on

03/10/08 - Hamilton Avenue School Students Will Excell On The CMT's If The Biology Questions Are About How Mold Effects Children In A Small Classroom.

Hamilton Avenue Children Know All About Mold
And How It Effects There Little Bodies.

Rau: We'll do well on CMT's

By Andrew Shaw
Greenwich Time - Staff Writer

... When {Hamilton Avenue School Principal Damaris Rau} started, the school building was plagued by mold, and students and staff soon were forced to move to a temporary building so their school could be renovated. Since then, her school has been cited by the state for being racially imbalanced, and rising enrollment has created crowded classrooms. In the meantime, their original building, which was supposed to be ready last September, has had major construction delays and won't be ready until this fall.

To top it off, mold was discovered in the temporary building on Feb. 29, which led officials to cancel classes all last week, close the building for the rest of the school year and disperse Hamilton Avenue students to six schools around the district.....

Correction:

Molded Cieling Tiles were discovered over one year ago and Hamilton Avenue School parents were never told there children were in danger.

03/09/08 - Town Employees: Sternberg's Crew Knew - Mold Covered Tiles Replaced Over One Year Ago.

...some parents are worried. At recent public meetings with school officials, they have said the unexpected weeklong break may cause students to lose their readiness to take the test.

"I'm not happy about the CMT (delay). The kids were all very well prepared," said Dawn Nethercott, co-president of the school PTA. "It's an unfortunate situation."

All Greenwich public schools begin the CMT testing at the start of March and must finish by the end of the month, as in the rest of the state. The tests are used to gauge a school's progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law, which determines if a school should be taken over by the state if it does not show adequate progress over time.

Like others, Hamilton Avenue School teachers began heavy test preparation in late February, only to have classes canceled this week....

"The last thing they wanted was a week off," said Cathy Delehanty, president of the teachers' union.

Quote Of The Day: "I think the kids will do the best they can. That's a pretty tough group," John Curtin, assistant school superintendent of research and evaluation said. "If there's any school in the district that's prepared to deal with adversity, it's Hamilton Avenue."

That's right John, "they are a pretty tough group". It is not easy to learn when you have headaches, prolonged sinus infections and your teacher is complaining of about headaches, nausea, and respiratory problems.

I am sure that the Glenville Students will also be
a "pretty tough group" too.

Shame on

03/09/08 - Town Employees: Sternberg's Crew Knew - Mold Covered Tiles Replaced Over One Year Ago.

School Officials And Politician's Face The Parents Of Hamilton Avenue School.

Hamilton Avenue Parents And Greenwich Media Outlets Are Being Lied To By Betty Sternberg's Administrators.

School Employees Replaced Molded Cieling Tiles From The Modular Classrooms Over One Year Ago.

That's Right Greenwich School Official's Knew About The Mold Over One Year Ago.

Town employees say Hamilton Avenue School Principal Damaris Rau knows that mold covered ceiling tiles were discovered and replaced over one year ago in the temporary modular classroom buildings

It appears that Principal Damaris Rau in a Greenwich Public School decision to replace the contaminated tiles and not tell parents about the mold over one year ago.

The reason that 90% the modular classroom buildings eaves, or soffits, were covered in mold is that Principal Darius Rau did not demand that the children placed in her care be protected.

If Principal Rau had demanded that the mold had been properly remediated when it was first discovered over one year ago, then the mold would not have spread so extensively through the temporary modular classroom.

This was definitely a school maintenance problem that was improperly handled by Greenwich School Facilities Director Tony Byrne and Principal Rau, because the mold was discovered and then hidden from the school parents and taxpayers.

Maintenance and proper remediation were delayed out of fear of how Hamilton Avenue and Glenville school parents would react to the contamination in the modular school classrooms.

School officials and administrators were afraid of how active Hamilton Avenue Parents, like Lauren DiBella, Mina Bibeault, Rose Furano and Dawn Nethercott would react if it was disclosed that mold was found in the temporary modular classroom building.

There tremendous fear about how the parents and the media would react if it was disclosed that the Hamilton Avenue Children had been once again exposed to mold in the new school building.

Further there was a fear that the very vocal parents of Glenville School would refuse to send their children to the contaminated modular classrooms, when the Hamilton Avenue students moved out.

For over five years Hamilton Avenue parent Lauren DiBella has been right about Greenwich Public School Administrators.

She and other parents were stonewalled by school officials five years ago , when students and staff complained about headaches, nausea, and respiratory problems at the Old Hamilton Avenue School.

When Ms. DiBella complained during the last year that children were suffered from headaches, prolonged sinus infections in the temporary modular classrooms, she was again ignored by school administrators.

Further more, Town Employees are also saying that Principal Rau and other school administrators agreed to hide the mold from Hamilton Avenue Parents for over one year, because they feared they could not handle the displacement of hundreds of Hamilton Avenue School students.

Principal Rau knew that there is a good chance that removing the molded tiles filled the classroom air with airborne mold spores, but she did no care that her students and teachers would be exposed to airborne mold particles and spores.

Rau was only worried about her job, so she went along with administrators who wanted to hide the contamination in the modular classrooms from parents from both Hamilton Avenue School and Glenville School.

But eventually, the cover up was exposed, because leaks got so bad that water routinely poured into a fifth-grade classroom.

This caused enraged parents to reach out to Greenwich Roundup and other media outlets in town.

If Rau was as smart as, she thinks she is, she would have never got involved in the school administration cover-up to hide the mold that developing in the modular building.

It appears that Rau has not learned her lesson, because she is in on the new cover up to protect incompetent school administrators for being punished for hiding the mold contamination from parents.

Is Principal Rau going to take the fall for Facilities Director Tony Byrn, Superintendent for Business Services Sue Wallerstein or Greenwich School board member Michael Bodson (Who serves as a liaison on town facilities committees) ?

Moreover, Principal Rau and the other lying administrators have no credible back-up plan is for the fall, even though she and they know that Hamilton Avenue School's renovation will most likely not be ready for students.

Building construction has already been delayed by a year because of repeated school administration foul ups.

Almost everyone, is waiting to see if Principal Rau is going to be the fall gal for Greenwich School Superintendent Betty Sternberg's administrators who were planning to move Glenville Students in the mold plagued building once Hamilton Avenue School was finished.

Worse yet, Principal Rau and Superintendent Betty Sternberg's administrators have put the building's warranty into jeopardy or other issues about who is responsible for paying for the remediation of the modular building, Carp Building Structures lawyers and Miller Building Systems lawyers are going to argue that they are not responsible for any remediation costs, because school administrators hid the mold problem from them for over a year.

Yet, Greenwich Taxpayers are repeatedly being assurred that the board is investigating who is responsible and that Betty Sternberg is going to hold them accountable.

Principal Rau has repeatedly told parents that formaldehyde and other possible contamination has not been looked at closely, because she and other school administrators are soooooooooo concerned about current well being of the displaced children who he let spend over a year in a contaminated classroom.

Rau and other school administrators wont even disclose what type of mold was discovered in the modular classroom buildings.

Soon, building contractors lawyers, parents, reporters are all going to be filing freedom of information requests for ceiling tile purchase orders, tyveck suit purchase orders, respirator and filter purchase orders, installation work orders, work schedules, overtime pay requests,correspondence, emails and photos about the molded tiles that were removed from the modular classroom, over a year ago.

Hopefully Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg, Sue Wallerstein, assistant superintendent for business services and Facilities Director Tony Byrne will not hide or shread any documents about the molded tiles that were replaced over one year ago.

It Is Time For This School Cover Up

To Come To An End.

One Town employee has said that documents about the mold covered ceiling tiles that were replaced over a year ago has been given to a school official that is closely associated with the Board of Education special committee that includes board member Michael Bodson, who serves as a liaison on town facilities committees, School Board Member Steve Anderson, Leslie Moriarty, School Board President Nancy Weissler, Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg and Board of Estimate and Taxation member Jim Campbell.

Further, this Town employee says that if the committee does not start investigating the molded ceiling tiles that were removed from the modular classroom over a year ago, then he will supply these documents to the local news paper.

For the record if the documents are given to Greenwich Roundup, they will be put up here for all the Hamilton Avenue Parents to see.

It's time to face the facts.

And it is time for Greenwich Taxpayers to stop suffering from the fools who administer our public schools.

It is time for incompetent and lying school administrators to be fired.

The truth is that that the modular building will not be remediated of mold problems before the end of the school year.

Greenwich Taxpayers are going to pay dearly to remediate this modular classroom building that was allowed to rot away for over one year.

Shame on

MORE INFO:

03/06/08 - Do You Trust Betty Sternberg When She Says The Air In The Classroom Modulars Was Safe?

03/05/08 - "I don't think they looked into the water problem," Mina Bibeault said. "We've put up with a lot and they've put our kids at risk."

03/02/08 - Another Administrative Screw Up - "They let it happen again. Shame on them. They should be fired," said Laura Dibella past PTA president.

MOLDS FLOURISH, ILLNESS PREVAILS

Your Tax Dollars NOT At Work
Parents Are Infuriated And Outraged

Current PTA co-chair Dawn Nethercott says, "I'm appalled!"

Ham Ave. modulars shut over mold fears

By Christine Hall
Greenwich Time Staff Writer

Hamilton Avenue School will close for a week starting tomorrow, and relocate completely for the rest of the school year, because of mold found inside the walls of the temporary classrooms the school occupies at Western Middle School....

... The Hamilton Avenue School students and staff will be relocated for the remainder of the school year, a statement released by the schools yesterday states, but it isn't known where yet...

... The school has been operating in the temporary buildings for 31Ú2 years -- what was supposed to be 18 months -- while its old Chickahominy building is rebuilt because of its mold problems. The construction project has had numerous setbacks and is now well behind schedule. The most recent addition to the delays was just announced at Thursday night's Board of Education meeting....

...The temporary classrooms have had problems with water pooling and snow piling up on their flat roofs, Sue Wallerstein, assistant superintendent for business services said Friday....

...a special Board of Education meeting has been called for 7 p.m. tomorrow night at a location still to be determined, at which the public will be allowed to comment and ask questions.

MORE INFORMATION:

The problems with mold usually stem from the symptoms and health effects resulting from indoor mold exposure. There is public awareness that exposure to mold can cause adverse health effects, symptoms, and possible allergic reactions. Health professionals are often tasked with the investigation and/or assessment of these health effects on employees and/or the public.

The most common form of hypersensitivity is caused by the direct exposure to inhaled mold spores that can be dead or alive or hyphal fragments which can lead to allergic asthma or allergic rhinitis. The most common effects are Rhinorrhea (runny nose), watery eyes, coughing and asthma attacks. Another form of hypersensitivity is hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP). This is usually the direct result of inhaled large spores or fragments in an occupational setting. About 5% of individuals are predicted to have some allergic airway symptoms from molds over their lifetime.

Toxic effects from mold are produced by exposure to the mycotoxins of some mold species, such as Stachybotrys chartarum (S. chartarum). These are often referred to as “Toxic molds” These toxic molds are often implicated as a potential cause of Sick Building Syndrome.