Schools wise to keep watchful eye on mold
We don’t have to go back in history any further than five years to see what can happen when a foreign substance gets introduced into the air at one of our schools.
The now-infamous toxic fumes incident at Warren County High School not only sent over a dozen students to the emergency room, it shut down the high school for several days and triggered an onslaught of tests from organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control.
The cause of the fumes, and the inexplicable illness which struck students that day, has been a topic for statewide, national, and even global interest.
We hope such an incident never duplicates itself here and school officials are no doubt thinking along the same lines. With the sudden emphasis on mold-related health problems, particularly mold which can be found in older schools, Warren County is wise to be taking preventative measures to ensure mold doesn’t become a nuisance in any of our public schools.
Using other schools around the state as an example, we don’t want to be straddled with mold-related problems here.
In Memphis, East High School saw about a third of its student body stay at home in the wake of a mold contamination scare there. The scare took place when an East High student died of an asthma attack at his home. Although mold was not determined to be a contributing cause of death, parents were nonetheless concerned.
In East Tennessee, a high school in Sullivan County was closed for over a month – and students were forced to take classes at Bristol Motor Speedway – because of mold troubles. In Middle Tennessee, mold problems have been discovered in Nashville-area schools.
Fortunately, no mold has been found in Warren County, although the county’s school system does include several older buildings such as Centertown and Bobby Ray. It’s with that in mind school officials have been keeping a close watch on ventilation systems and have been monitoring air quality closely since the toxic fumes incident. A full cleaning of ventilation ducts, coils and pans is performed each summer by the maintenance department.
Since mold is often caused by excessive dampness, oftentimes simple, routine maintenance can stop a potential problem before it starts.
As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and that is certainly the case where mold is concerned.
It’s reassuring to know school officials realize there is a potential for a problem and that they are determined to stop such a problem before it starts.