Excessive Humidity Sparked Mold In Brick School: Officials

BRICK, NJ -- Excessive humidity, shrubs near the building and dehumidifiers that failed to operate properly are to blame for surface mold that appeared in seven classrooms at Emma Havens Young Elementary School last week, an environmental air quality company has concluded.

In an update posted on the Brick Township School District website, district officials said preliminary results from testing conducted by Environmental Safety Management Corporation showed the "high chronic outdoor humidity combined with shrubs and soil" next to the building near ventilation intakes led to the mold that was found last Monday in the classrooms by school custodians.

The amount of mold was very small, a district source told Patch, with a few small spots on student desks. It was not widespread mold covering vast surfaces, the source said.

Air quality in the seven affected classrooms, all in one part of the building, was tested, and tests were conducted at random in other areas of the building by Environmental Safety Management Corp., said the letter signed by Superintendent Gerald Dalton and Emma Havens Young Principal David Kaysan.

The preliminary test results showed "average total indoor mold levels were lower than outdoor levels," the letter said. "However, there were some areas where some common outdoor mold types were elevated indoors."

The dehumidification system in that part of the building was not performing as designed, officials said.

A professional mold cleaning contractor was hired to conduct air and surface cleaning of the impacted areas, with the work supervised by Dr. Richard Lynch of Environmental Safety.

District officials said the shrubs and soil near the affected area of the building since have been removed.

In addition, the district said the following actions have been undertaken:

• Insurance Restoration Specialists has installed HEPA filtered air scrubbers in all impacted areas.
• Professional Cleaning and HEPA vacuuming is being conducted in impacted areas.
• All unit ventilators in all classrooms throughout the building are being re-cleaned.
• Follow-up testing will be conducted.

Click here to get Patch email notifications on this or other local news articles or get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our new app. Download here. Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com

Follow us on Facebook. Click here to like our page.

Image via Google Maps