Maintenance workers found more mold in LaFollette ComplexThursday in a room next door to the one it was discovered in.
Kelly Engle and Jennifer Mattingly, freshmen, watchedmaintenance crew members reveal mold behind a dresser in theirfifth-floor Brayton-Clevenger Hall room. The dresser was against awall shared by their room and the one of Megan Diaz and TeyaEnerson, freshmen who were released from Ball Memorial Hospitalearly Tuesday morning after treatment for an upper respiratoryinfection and sinusitis.
Mattingly said she and Engle saw patches of mold on the back ofthe dresser and on the wall sheltering a steam pipe that wasrepaired for leakage Monday. The resulting moisture caused mold togrow on the outside surfaces of the walls, and maintenance crewshave cleaned the effected areas. Maintenance also checked the roomsabove and below the fifth-floor rooms and found no other moldgrowth.
Hoosier Microbiological Laboratory took air samples forlaboratory testing Thursday in several residential rooms and in thecommons area. Marc McFarland, an industrial hygienist forFacilities Management, said results from the testing were expectedin about a week.
George Edwards, the associate director of Housing and ResidenceLife Facilities, said because the effected area was small, hisdepartment does not anticipate the testing to reveal high levels ofmold in the air. He noted that last June, mold tests were performedon the same floor and did not yield abnormal results.
"We don't expect any problems to come back at this point," hesaid.
Mattingly has not experienced any health problems stemming fromthe mold, she said, but Engle said she had felt unwell for awhile.
"I just got a sinus infection, and I don't get sick," shesaid.
Other floor residents have complained of fatigue, headaches,coughing, watery eyes and sinus congestion. Thaddeus Godish, aprofessor of natural resources and environmental management who hasdone extensive studies and consultation on mold, said those aretypical reactions to mold.
"Those are classical symptoms," he said, adding that sinusitis,which is infection or inflammation of the sinuses, usually resultsfrom relatively high exposure to mold. "A very high percentage ofsinusitis is mold-caused."
Engle said she would likely seek treatment for her sinusinfection. The university paid for the medication prescribed toDiaz and Enerson, but Edwards said the university had not told herif it will pay for all costs related to their hospital treatment.The university also credited $130 to each student's Bursar accountfor damages and inconveniences and gave each $20 in cash forlaundry.
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