Homeowner Newsletter: Fall 2018
©2018 Jeffrey C. May
Summer is over, and children are now in school. If your son or daughter has asthma or allergies, there may be conditions within the school building that could cause your child to have health symptoms.
What are some of these conditions, and what can you as a parent do about it?
Carpeting: Many modern school buildings have wall-to-wall carpeting, which is often cleaned over the summer holiday when the weather is humid and the building is closed up. If the carpet remains damp for more than 48 hours, mold and bacteria may begin to grow – flourishing on the dust still captured in the carpet fibers. If your child’s classroom smells musty, the carpet may be the culprit.
Mold contamination cannot be removed completely through traditional carpet-cleaning methods. Treatment with steam vapor, if done properly, has a good chance of killing any mold growth and microarthropods (such as mites that are foraging in the mold or are eating those foraging mites) that may be present; but in the end, the carpet may have to be replaced. Meanwhile, the carpet can be covered with an adhesive-backed product that has sufficient adhesive to stay in place over an extended period of time (www.pro-tect.com).
Hard flooring, such as ceramic or vinyl tile, wood, or a laminate product is preferable, since carpet fibers have more surfaces that can capture biodegradable dust.
Pets: Sometimes a teacher will have a pet rabbit or a gerbil in a classroom. If your child has pet allergies, ask that the animal be moved to another room (or that your child be moved to another classroom where there is not an animal in residence).
Fish tanks can also be found in some classrooms. And believe it or not, these tanks can acquire dust-mite infestations on the covers. All that moisture and spilled fish-food flakes for food! Then mite allergens can become aerosolized when the cover is opened. If your child is allergic to dust mites, ask that the teacher move the tank to another room, or keep the tank’s rim and cover free of all dust and fish food.
Books: Many teachers collect children’s books in yard sales or library sales to augment their in-classroom library. Such books can sometimes contain mold growth if they’ve ever been stored in a musty basement or garage. When a musty book is opened and pages are turned, people in the room can be exposed to mold spores – especially the person holding the book and those students sitting nearby. And unfortunately, mold spores remain potentially allergenic even when dead.
If any books in your child’s classroom smell musty or have visible mold spots (particularly on the tops and spines), they should be removed from the room.
The front door: Children should not enter a school building directly unto carpeting, because the moisture, dust and dirt on the bottom of their shoes can fuel mold growth. Ask the school to put a replaceable mat on top of the carpet in front of both entrance and exit doors.
Below-grade (below ground level) spaces: Many modern school buildings have classrooms, a library, or even a gym partially or fully below-grade. If such spaces are not adequately dehumidified in the summer, surfaces can become mold contaminated.
Some species of mold can grow when the relative humidity (RH) is over 80%; and below-grade spaces are naturally cool and damp.
If your child experiences symptoms in the school’s below-grade spaces, these spaces may have to be cleaned before your child can enter them again.
Heating and cooling: Most classrooms have “univents,” which supply heating (and sometimes cooling). These units have supply grilles at the top and are typically found along the exterior walls of classrooms. Univents rarely have adequate filtration or maintenance, so they contain dust and often mold growth. Then when they are operating, dust allergens and spores can be blown into the room. If your child’s room has univents, look inside the grille at the top and underneath (with a mirror and flashlight); if you see a lot of dust, notify maintenance.
Exposed fibrous lining material inside a uninvent captures dust which can be fodder for mold growth. Such material can be covered with aluminum foil and aluminum tape; better yet, the material can be replaced by closed-cell foam.
Two smelly school buildings: I inspected a large elementary school that contained an irritating odor. As I walked through the building, I saw children’s paintings hung up to dry, both in hallways and in classrooms. In several classrooms, the art class had just ended, and paint jars were still open to the air.
It turned out that to reduce expenses, the School Department ordered cheaper finger paints that contained formaldehyde as a preservative. The formaldehyde was off-gassing from damp art work and open paint jars, causing an irritating odor. The solution? Stop using paint that contained formaldehyde.
In a second school building, three classrooms had been abandoned due to a very unpleasant odor. Shrews had moved into the building and were nesting in the flat-roof insulation above the drop ceilings. These animals exude a musk that smells musty, and they defecate in piles that get moldy. When the maintenance personnel removed a number of ceiling tiles, they found evidence of an extensive shrew infestation.
The solution? Remove all furniture from the three classrooms, cover the carpeting with adhesive-backed plastic, remove the drop-ceiling tiles, and remove all the insulation. While the ceiling cavities are open, clean, disinfest and seal the exposed framing and roof sheathing before replacing the insulation and drop ceiling. And prevent the shrews from re-inhabiting this lovely warm spot. All openings at the exterior that could be rodent pathways had to be sealed with mesh and foam, wood or masonry, as appropriate.
Keep a written record: Ask your child (or your child’s teacher) to remember when your child experiences allergy/asthma symptoms, such as sneezing, coughing or wheezing. Where was your child when the symptoms occurred? What had your child been doing before he or she had these symptoms? Keeping a record like this can help you identify areas or activities in the school that are problematic for your child: an important first step in identifying a potential indoor air quality problem. Meanwhile, until the problem or problems are remediated, your child can stay away from certain areas of the school or avoid certain activities that exacerbate his or her asthma or allergy symptoms.
I always tell my clients to identify the problem first, before throwing a solution at it. In classrooms, the carpets and univents are the most likely culprits.
Refer to my book My Office Is Killing Me (available on amazon.com). Chapter 8 focuses on indoor air quality problems in school buildings.
Wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.
Jeff