Schools Suffering From Mold
When you’re in an environment on a day to day basis, you want to make sure it is as healthy as possible. This is true whether you’re talking about your own home, your work place, or where you send your children to school.
Mold growing in schools
Over the past few years, there’s been an increase in the number of schools across the country dealing with mold growth, especially during the summer when maintenance isn’t as frequent. Mold can easily incubate in the increased humidity of an empty school building in the summer months. This can result in delayed back to school dates and even negative health effects for the students and faculty who are inside the facility daily.
There are many instances of this happening with a variety of schools from elementary all the way to college universities. Take this very recent case of an elementary school in New Jersey that had to delay opening for the fall to complete a thorough mold removal process. Mold is a health concern for all individuals, but especially younger children in elementary who don’t have the strong immune system of a developed adult. The dangers of children being exposed to mold and poor indoor air quality risks is that they can develop health issues that will follow them through out their life.
Impacts of mold in schools
When mold problems aren’t recognized or taken care of properly by uncaring staff, they have the potential to grow rapidly and become a widespread issue within a district like with this Atlanta school district. For college students, the potential for mold related issues doesn’t stop in the classroom, as there are growing concerns of mold in dormitories that first year students are often required to stay in.
Preventing and solving mold growth
So, what is being done to solve the problems of mold concerns in schools across the country? Schools are spending millions of dollars in costly HVAC upgrades, remediation with professional mold remediation companies, remodeling, and subsequent air testing to get a clear and accurate picture of the air quality in their schools. Mold issues in schools can become a costly problem for administration, but as we saw in the New Jersey elementary case, it can also impact school schedules by postponing start dates and elongating the school year.
Ensuring Student's health
The main measure that schools should take after remediating a mold issue in their facilities is ensuring that it never happens again in the future. They can do this by being responsible and taking preventative measures. While all administrations want to save money, it’s simply not worth it to cut back on cleaning measures to cut a budget here or there. Pay attention to warning signs and ensure that proper air quality testing is performed on a regular basis. It is also worth noting that updating an HVAC system will ensure proper humidity levels through all months of the year so mold does not have a chance to grow at all. It’s important to keep students healthy all months of the year!
