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Environmental
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Mold Inspector
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Mold Remediator
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“Mold Remediation in a Hospital”
Study published in Toxicology and Industrial Health, at
http://tih.sagepub.com/content/25/9-10/723.abstract
Tang G Lee,
University of Calgary, Faculty of Environmental Design, Calgary, Alberta,
Canada
As occupants in a hospital, patients are susceptible to air contaminants
that can include biological agents dispersed throughout the premise, and an
exposed patient can become ill and require medical intervention. A
consideration for patients is that they may have become environmentally
sensitive and require placement in an environment that does not compromise
their health. Unfortunately, the hospital environment often contains more
biological substances than can be expected in an office or home environment.
When a hospital also experiences water intrusion such as flooding or water
leaks, resulting mold growth can seriously compromise the health of patients
and others such as nursing staff and physicians (Burge, Indoor Air and
Infectious Disease. Occupational Medicine: State of the Art Reviews, 1980;
Lutz et al., Clinical Infectious Diseases 37: 786—793, 2003). Micro-organism
growth can propagate if the water is not addressed quickly and effectively.
Immunocompromised patients are particularly at risk when subjected to fungal
infection such that the US Center for Disease Control issued guideline for
building mold in health care facilities (Centers for Disease and Control
[CDC], Centers for Disease and Control: Questions and Answers on
Stachybotrys chartarum and Other Molds, 2000).
This paper is based on mold
remediation of one portion of a hospital unit due to water from construction
activity and inadequate maintenance, resulting in mold growth. A large
proportion of the hospital staff, primarily nurses in the dialysis unit,
exhibited health symptoms consistent with mold exposure. Unfortunately, the
hospital administrators did not consider the mold risk to be serious and
refused an independent consultant retained by the nurse’s union to examine
the premise (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [CBC], Nurses file complaints
over mold at Foothills. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2003). The
nurse’s union managed to have the premise examined by submitting a court
order of detention and inspection and for an interlocutory injunction to
allow their consultants to undertake air quality testing. Mold remediation
procedures are readily available and are not to be discussed here (Silicato,
http://www.nibs.org/BETEC/M6/ 13-Silicato_Mold-Remediation.pdf, 2004).
However, the difficulty of determining the qualifications of consultants,
contactors and project managers are discussed. It also describes the need
and importance of a buffer zone between the occupied areas and the mold
abatement containment area. |