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Mold in Our Dorms?
By Brandon Ayers Agnew '08 & Rachel Reynolds '07
STAFF WRITERS

About two months ago Brandon Agnew ‘07 brought up the concern of mold in the dorms at an SGA meeting. Shortly after that, she received a call from Kelly Espy inquiring about the problem, and physical plant employees were sent over the next day to check out the situation in her room. She thought the problem was resolved.

Unfortunately, she returned to a room with mold still growing from the air vent and a note claiming it was just dirt.

She says, “I’m sorry, but dirt is not fuzzy. In fact, dirt can be removed easily with a wet rag. My mold, on the other hand, is anything but dirt.”

Since then issue came up, she has heard of numerous cases of potential mold in most of the dorms around campus. Girls develop allergies they’ve never had at Sweet Briar before, smell mold in their rooms, or they can actually see it on the walls, like Agnew.

Cleaning and removing mold from structures can be extremely costly. Agnew says, “my hometown school district was forced to clean out any and all dangerous mold found in their elementary schools recently, and the project became both time-consuming and expensive.” While small traces of mold in our every day life are not a problem, in large quantities mold can cause illness and even death.

Most deadly mold is caused by moisture. Many students will have noticed that most of the dorms on campus are air conditioned with large metal pipes running across our ceilings. Those are filled with water. And most of the dorms' windows are far from air tight. Many students who live near bathrooms or water tanks, or have simply had their air conditioning break in August or May will know that humidity is a common problem.

Agnew comments, “to be quite honest, I am not sure is there is an answer to this problem. While our physical plant guys are great, I think it might be time to bring in professionals who can accurately pinpoint mold in our dorms. Although I love the feel of our old dorms, old isn’t always safe.”

For more information about mold and to learn how to protect yourself, visit The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website at www.epa.gov/mold.