About a year after a mold outbreak at the University of Maryland, fed up faculty and staff who work out of one prominent building say they’ve been dealing with mold for even longer, and the school hasn’t done nearly enough to mitigate the problems.
Woods Hall is one of the smaller buildings on campus, but it sits prominently on McKeldin Mall and houses the school’s anthropology department. It was built in 1948 – and the materials and techniques used to build it back then are outdated today.
The faculty who work inside Woods Hall tells the university’s school newspaper, The Diamondback, that they can track health issues they believe are related to mold back to at least 2012. In 2015, the department began documenting complaints related to mold.
At least 15 people who work in the building can cite health problems they believe are related to mold, including respiratory issues and skin problems such as rashes and peeling skin.
Paul Shackel, the chair of the anthropology department, told The Diamondback he estimates that the department has spent thousands of dollars replacing furniture and other materials overcome with mold. One professor described the steps taken to fix the problem so far as “band aids.”
Hundreds of students at the University of Maryland were moved in waves to hotels on a temporary basis last year after a mold outbreak at Elkton Hall left some students sick. One student’s family is convinced mold contributed to her death and announced plans earlier this year to file a lawsuit.
The school said it’s trying to fix the problem and has been working to control moisture levels in the building. But since there are no EPA or OSHA standards for tracking airborne mold, air sampling is not part of the industry guidelines. The school is still trying to come up with a long term solution to fix the problem.
