Toxic Work Enviornment (long)

[Sapphire Silk]

And I do mean that literally.

BG The nursing department at the community college where I teach (my full time gig) moved into a brand new academic building 3 1/2 years ago. Overall the building is very nice and we like it a lot (I love the fact I have my own office; I had to share in our old building), but there have been problems.

The carpet was subcontracted out and the contractor did a very poor job of installation. It keeps bunching and bubbling up. The worst problems have been in our conference room, the Chair's office, and our one large lecture classroom that is carpeted (the rest of the classrooms are tiled).

On top of that, a plumbing contractor flooded the Chair's office while fixing a plumbing issue.

Also, we've had several incidents where the Surgical Technology department on the floor above us has improperly done something with their equipment that has caused flooding on our floor (their floor floods and rains onto our floor).

Currently the college is in a lawsuit against the main contractor, the plumbing sub contractor, and the carpet subcontractor over the carpet issues. /BG

The carpet has been an issue for 3 years. My office is OK, but most of the others are not. The carpet is bunching so badly in the classroom (I have class in this classroom two days a week) and the Chair's office that people are tripping and nearly falling as a result. After two students stumbled badly last night I went to the Chair yet again to complain. She promised to put in a work order to try and get it fixed.

Meanwhile, I am struggling through class with a migraine that won't quit. At first I chalked it up to dehydration, think I hadn't drunk enough water after working out earlier in the day. But then my chest started getting tighter and tighter. I kept coughing to try and clear it, to no avail and wishing I had my inhaler, which I'd left at home (I have exercise induced asthma and usually only use it before a work out).

After class, one of my students approaches me and say, "Ms. Panacea, I don't know if I'm just crazy or what, but there's something wrong with this room. I smell something bad and it's making my chest tight and me sick to my stomach. I think the carpet is moldy."

That's when it hit me that the carpet might be responsible for my own symptoms. When I left the room, my headache started going away (tho not completely, I had to take some Excedrin as soon as I got home), and my chest started to loosen up (again, not completely, I still needed to use the inhaler).

I've emailed the situation to the Chair to start a paper trail. I think the room is toxic, and I've still got another three months to go before the end of the semester (I'll be in another classroom in the Spring). If it is the carpet, I can't handle this. I can't go to work knowing I'm going to get sick two days a week.

Stay tuned . . . .

[Blue Ginger]

Bit of a random thought, but is there a germ/virus testing dept at the school? (not sure of the correct name) Can you get someone to test the carpet and maybe the lower parts of the walls and see what grows in the petrie (sp?) dishes?

Might help the school with the whole document everything. And it would be just ever so slightly

I vaguely remember doing this at school. The gross stuff that was growing at the end of a week made me not want to touch any of the surfaces we swabbed.

[Sapphire Silk]

I just got an email from the Chair. Maintenance is going to test for mold. I'm not sure what that will entail.

[dalesys]

Maintenance is going to test for mold. I'm not sure what that will entail.

Looking at the walls around the room, just above the floor, and saying, "Yup. There's mold(ing)."

[LillFilly]

Oh GEEZE, stay safe! I've been in places like that before! 20 minutes and my eyes are red and itching, nose is stopped-up, can't breath. Yeah, i thought I was coming down with something. The place was both moldy AND had a mouse problem. Good luck. Oh, wouldn't the school worry about students suing them for getting sick in the classrooms?

[auntiem]

Do you have a environmental safety department at the school (most schools do) - contact them directly. You don't have to become a "frequent flyer" complainer, but that is the department that can really do much.
Did they do a big dry-out as soon as the flooding happened (rip out walls, affected floors and set up giant fans)? Around here, mold prevention is expensive, but not as expensive as mold abatement - which at this point sounds like they are going to have to do.

[Sapphire Silk]

Oh, wouldn't the school worry about students suing them for getting sick in the classrooms?

It depends. My student's complaint was the first I've heard, and last night was the first time I've had a problem in there (I guess I'll find out again next week if I'm still going to have trouble since I'm not in there tonight for other reasons). That's why I informed the Chair by email. I wanted to start a paper trail.

Do you have a environmental safety department at the school (most schools do) - contact them directly. You don't have to become a "frequent flyer" complainer, but that is the department that can really do much.
Did they do a big dry-out as soon as the flooding happened (rip out walls, affected floors and set up giant fans)? Around here, mold prevention is expensive, but not as expensive as mold abatement - which at this point sounds like they are going to have to do.

No, not that I know of. Maintenance takes care of most of those issues. Campus Police takes incident reports on injuries.

They did not do a dry out. The building was brand new, and no one with the contractor or the administration wanted to rip apart a brand new building to prevent mold. I guess they assumed it wouldn't come to that since the building was so new.

Still is, really.

[Argus]

Meanwhile, I am struggling through class with a migraine that won't quit. At first I chalked it up to dehydration, think I hadn't drunk enough water after working out earlier in the day. But then my chest started getting tighter and tighter. I kept coughing to try and clear it, to no avail and wishing I had my inhaler, which I'd left at home (I have exercise induced asthma and usually only use it before a work out).

After class, one of my students approaches me and say, "Ms. Panacea, I don't know if I'm just crazy or what, but there's something wrong with this room. I smell something bad and it's making my chest tight and me sick to my stomach. I think the carpet is moldy."

Something like that happened with my Mom at the school where she taught. She'd actually had symptoms for a while and was worried that it might be a stress reaction.

It turned out to be a mold/fungus symbiosis in a corner of her classroom, which was also a corner of the building. I think part of the correction involved some work on the roof.

In this case, I wonder whether that student has prior experience with moldy rooms.

[BlaqueKatt]

I just got an email from the Chair. Maintenance is going to test for mold. I'm not sure what that will entail.

should involve petri dishes of either TSA, PDA, or DRBC, left out uncovered for 30 minutes in several areas(settle plates, spores will settle and grow if present), sealed and incubated, then read.

[Pixilated]

I hope you can get this straightened out quickly ... and appropriately! We had a similar problem at the newspaper I used to work at, and nothing got done. People shouldn't have to work in that kind of crap.

[auntiem]

They did not do a dry out. The building was brand new, and no one with the contractor or the administration wanted to rip apart a brand new building to prevent mold. I guess they assumed it wouldn't come to that since the building was so new.

Still is, really.

They had to do a full dry out on a not even one year old building here due to a mistake made by someone on the top floor lab. They were unpleased to say the least. Are you in an area where mold isn't a hot button issue? That is the only reason I can think of to not do it - otherwise I can't imagine the school's insurance will cover abatement since prevention wasn't attempted.

[TheSHAD0W]

I had a toxic environment in an old building I purchased; I'm one of the people who's hardly affected by mold exposure, but one gentleman I invited in to see the place began coughing within minutes of entering. We finally tracked it down to a drainage pipe that had cracked and was dumping water into the earth in an area between the old building and a newer extension. We replaced the old pipe, treated the area with bleach and the mold spore level has been coming down.

Luckily my building is mostly concrete and brick and won't sustain mold unless water is present. If there's moldy wood in a building, you may not be able to get rid of the mold without removing the affected wood.

[42_42_42]

Bleach doesn't kill mold or mildew unless it is on a completely non-pourous surface. Ammonia also doesn't kill mold or mildew on pourous surfaces, although it is great for soaking clothes in to remove mildew from them. Borax, vinegar, baking soda, tea tree oil, or grapefruit seed extract will all kill not just the surface cells, but down to the roots and actually get rid of the mold infestation.

http://blackmold.awardspace.com/kill-remove-mold.html