Black mold was found inside Carrollton Elementary School

The News 3 investigative team has been looking into mold problems at Carrollton Elementary School.

There are two reports that show mold and air quality issues were detected at the school after a group called Marine Chemist Service, Inc. conducted mold inspections last spring.

It states that stachybotrys, also known as black mold, was found in eight rooms in the school. The report says no amount of stachybotrys should be present on indoor samples.

The report also found that the relative humidity readings in almost all the classrooms were not within the Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptable range.

News 3 showed the findings to two experts from Old Dominion University, Dr. Joshua Sill and Dr. Jim Blando. After looking at the findings, they both said the school has a mold issue, but it does not appear to be a severe problem.

“I think that, for the most part, that most of the levels found in some of those rooms were extremely low. So hopefully, it hasn’t negatively impacted the health of the kids up to this point,” said Dr. Joshua Sill, the Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at ODU.

He said it is important to address the issues and make sure it does not get worse and impact the health of the children or staff over time.

Both experts say people with asthma or pre-existing medical conditions could be at greater risk for being impacted by this kind of mold.

“There is a lot of variability from person to person,” said Dr. Sill. “Some people can be exposed to the same amounts of mold and be completely fine and then other people could be extremely symptomatic.”

Experts say the key to preventing mold growth is moisture control.

“There is a very easy solution: stop the water leaks, fix the water leaks immediately, dry out surfaces and replace any moldy material and if it can’t be replaced, then you have to clean it,” said Dr. Blando.

Article source: Black mold found in Carrollton Elementary: Report (wtkr.com)