Airborne Mould Sampling Moncton High School 207 Church Street Moncton, NB E1C 5A3. November 25, 2013

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1 Project # Airborne Mould Sampling Moncton High School 207 Church Street Moncton, NB E1C 5A3 November 25, 2013 Attention: Serge Melanson Transportation and Infrastructure Facilities Management Moncton Operations 381 Killam Drive Moncton, New Brunswick E1C 3T1 ALL-TECH Environmental Services Limited 885 Bayside Drive Saint John, New Brunswick E2R 1A3

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION Mould EXPOSURE CRITERIA SURVEY METHODOLOGY SURVEY FINDINGS CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS RECOMMENDATIONS LIMITATIONS... 4 APPENDIX 1 - Laboratory Results APPENDIX 2 Bibliography

3 1.0 INTRODUCTION On November 14, 2013, Lise Cormier of ALL-TECH Environmental Services Limited (ALL-TECH) conducted total airborne mould spore sampling in the following locations within Moncton High School located at 207 Church Street, Moncton, NB: Room 221 Room 323 This assessment was performed at the request of Serge Melanson of the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure after sampling on October 24, 2013 showed small amounts of Stachybotrys. Assessing potential health risks to building occupants associated with the presence of indoor mould growth was beyond the scope of our investigation. Any decisions regarding health risks posed by indoor mould growth and decisions to remove or return people to affected areas should be based on a medical assessment made by a practitioner who is trained in occupational/environmental medicine or a related specialty and are knowledgeable about these types of exposures. This report summarizes results of our visual moisture and airborne mould spore assessment. 1.1 Mould Mould is a particular type of fungus. Fungi are a distinct and unique group of organisms that are in a kingdom classified as decomposers. Unlike animals, fungi have no organs for food uptake or absorption. Therefore, they must secrete chemicals called enzymes into the environment to degrade their complex food sources into a soluble form. 1 Moulds are ubiquitous to the environment. Indoor and outdoor environments naturally harbour a great variety of microscopic organisms such as mould. Prolonged exposure to excessive moisture enables microbes to flourish. If conditions are such that moisture is limited, then these microbes have a stable relationship with the built environment. However, when moisture accumulates more rapidly than the natural drying process, the ecology changes and favours the rapid amplification of mould. 2 The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) S520 Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Mould Remediation has defined mould in buildings into three categories: Conditions 1 (normal fungal ecology) - Indoor environment that may have settled spores, fungal fragments, or traces of actual growth whose identify, location and quantity are reflective for normal fungal ecology for similar indoor environment. Condition 2 (settled mould spores) - Indoor environment which is primarily contaminated with settled spores that were dispersed directly or indirectly from a condition 3 area. No actual mould growth. Condition 3 (actual growth) - Indoor environment contaminated with the presence of actual mould growth and associated spores. Actual growth includes mould growth that is active or dormant, visible or hidden. Mould contamination is defined as the presence of mould growth and/or mould spores, whose identity and location are not reflective of a normal fungal ecology for similar indoor environments, and which may produce adverse health effects, cause damage to materials and/or adversely affect the operation and function of building systems. There are a number of documented cases of health problems related to exposure to indoor mould. The most common symptoms from exposure to mould in indoor environments are runny nose, eye irritation, cough, congestion, and aggravation of asthma if the person is asthmatic. People with suppressed immune systems may be susceptible to serious fungal infections as a result of exposure to indoor moulds. People 1 Baily, H.S., Fungal Contaminations: A Manual for investigation, Remediation and Control, Building Environment Consultants Inc., 2005, Juniper, FL, Page Fungal Contamination in Public Buildings: A guide to Recognition and Management, Health Canada, Federal-Provincial Committee on Environmental and Occupational Health, June P age

4 with suppressed immune systems are normally patients in health care facilities and can be adversely affected by not only mould but by a host of other microorganisms found in buildings. All mould species can produce mycotoxins; however, there is no correlation between inhalation exposure and the associated toxic response except in case where extremely high levels of dusts containing metabolite. The amount of dust in these cases is described as a fog. 3 These conditions are not normally found in built environments. Most of the toxic response associated with mould is by ingestion of foods heavily overgrown with moulds and not by inhalation of moulds. The present alarm over human exposure to moulds in the indoor environment derives from a belief that inhalation exposures to mycotoxins cause numerous and varied, but generally non-specific, symptoms. Current scientific evidence does not support the proposition that human health has been adversely affected by inhaled mycotoxins in the home, school, or office environment. 4 People who are exposed to mould will not necessarily exhibit adverse health effects; however, the mould must still be removed or controlled. People are at risk from indoor mould when spores or fragments are released into the air and inhaled or physically contacted (dermal exposure). Not everyone experiences allergic reaction; the susceptibility to exposure varies with the individual s genetic predisposition, age, state of health, and concurrent exposures. For these reasons, and because the measurement of exposure is not standardized and biological markers of exposure to mould are largely unknown, it is not possible to establish safe or unsafe levels of exposure. However, there are numerous guidelines that have been written to minimize and control mould indoors EXPOSURE CRITERIA Currently, Federal / Provincial regulations for airborne mould concentrations in indoor environments do not exist; however, there are numerous guidelines published regarding acceptable airborne mould concentrations. One guideline used to interpret the sampling results was Health Canada s Fungal Contamination in Public Buildings: A Guide to Recognition and Management. When air samples are collected as part of an air quality assessment, most situations dictate that comparisons are made between indoor and outdoor mould levels. Indoor and outdoor samples must be collected within the same time period. It is important that to the extent possible the outdoor samples taken represent the air entering the building. Indoor / outdoor relationships are assessed both by comparing concentrations and species composition of comparable collected samples. In non-problem environments, the concentration of fungi (mould) in indoor air typically is similar to or lower than the concentration seen outdoors, except when outdoor air concentrations indoors are near zero (i.e. during periods of snow cover). If fungal concentrations indoors are consistently higher than those outdoors, then indoor sources are indicated.6 According to the Canadian Construction Association s Mould Guidelines for the Canadian Construction Industry, the term mould applies to a large group of microorganisms, which, together with mushrooms and yeast, form the Fungi Kingdom of living matter. Over 100,000 individual species of mould have been identified and biologists estimate there may be over 1.5 million species worldwide. Mould organisms grow by degrading nutrients from organic substrates such as wood and wood products, fabrics, foodstuffs, plants and plant debris, and soil. 7 Mildew is a common term applied to a variety of moulds that grow on plants of household items under damp conditions. 7 Most moulds reproduce by forming large numbers of spores. Both high-level, short-term exposures and lower-level, long term exposures can result in illness. The most common symptoms from exposure to mould in indoor environments are runny nose, eye irritation, cough and congestion, aggravation of asthma, headache, flu-like symptoms, fatigue, and skin rash. 3 Pratt, DS, May, JJ Feed-associated respiratory illness in farmers, Arch Environ Health, 1984: 39: American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine guideline Adverse Human Health Effects Associated with Moulds in the Indoor Environment : pdf 5 Canadian Construction Association: Mould Guidelines for the Canadian Construction Industry, Document CCA , page 10, Burge, Harriet A.., and Otten, James A. In Bioaerosols: Assessment and Control, pp19-22, J. Macher, H.A. Ammann, H.A. Gurge et Al., eds. American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, Cincinnati OH, Canadian Construction Association: Mould Guidelines for the Canadian Construction Industry, Document CCA , page 9, P age

5 People with suppressed immune systems may be susceptible to fungal infections as a result of exposure to indoor moulds SURVEY METHODOLOGY Two (2) airborne mould spore samples inside Moncton High School and two (2) exterior air samples were collected. These total airborne mould spore samples were collected using Zefon Air-O-Cell sampling cassettes connected to a vacuum sampling pump. The flow rate on the sampling pump was set at 15 litres per minute. The Zefon Air-O-Cell cassette is an impaction-based sampler designed to pull air across a tacky sampling medium, trapping any airborne particulates. On November 14, 2013, four (4) samples were taken including two (2) exterior samples and sent to EMC Scientific, Mississauga, Ontario for analysis for airborne mould spore concentrations by Direct Microscopic Examination. 4.0 SURVEY FINDINGS A summary of the mould results is in the following tables. Please refer to Appendix 1 for full laboratory results. Table 3 - Total Airborne Mould Spore Concentration Results Moncton High School, November 14, 2013 Sample # Location Sample Volume Mould Spore ID Spore/M 3 M 3 Percent of Total Spores Ascospores 13 1 Aspergillus/Penicillium type Basidiospores 80 8 Total Spore Conc. Spores/M Room Room Cladosporium Colorless Epicoccum 7 1 Smuts, Periconia, Myxomycetes 7 1 Ascospores 7 1 Aspergillus/Penicillium type Basidiospores Cladosporium Colorless Smuts, Periconia, Myxomycetes 7 1 Ascospores 47 5 Aspergillus/Penicillium type Outside Railway 0.15 Basidiospores 67 7 Cladosporium Colorless Smuts, Periconia, Myxomycetes 47 5 Alternaria 7 1 Ascospores Outside Bus Parking 0.15 Aspergillus/Penicillium type 87 8 Basidiospores Cladosporium Colorless P age

6 Sample # Location Sample Volume Mould Spore ID Spore/M 3 M 3 Percent of Total Spores Epicoccum 7 1 Total Spore Conc. Spores/M 3 Smuts, Periconia, Myxomycetes 13 1 Torula CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The following factors were considered when interpreting air sampling data: There is no precise formula to distinguish normal background levels from elevated airborne mould spore levels. There is a high natural variability of airborne mould spores in the environment. There are no widely accepted evidence-based criteria that attribute a common set of adverse health effects to exposure to airborne mould. As with all airborne mould sampling, there are limitations to the Air-O-Cell sampling techniques. However, the advantages of spore trap data is that it can be more reliable than culturable air sample data when there is a high percentage of non-culturable airborne spores. This may be the case when spores are inherently difficult to culture following mould remediation that involves the use of disinfectants. Also, some fungal species are not culturable.8 The airborne mould spore concentrations in the interior samples were found to be low with mould spores which are typically found in indoor environments. When compared to the exterior sample, all interior samples show mould concentration results lower than the exterior mould concentrations. Both rooms show elevated Aspergillus/Penicillium type mould spore readings when compared to the exterior samples, however; it has been noted that historically, as determined from previous sampling events, airborne mould results show slightly elevated Aspergillus/Penicillium type mould spores in most areas of the school which have been previously tested 5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS No further investigation is required Conditions should be monitored for changing conditions. 6.0 LIMITATIONS The findings contained in this report are based upon conditions as they were observed at the time of the assessment. No assurance is made regarding changes in conditions subsequent to the time of the testing. A change in occupancy rate and mechanical ventilation system within the building can have a major impact on IAQ and mould. ALL-TECH s assessment reports present professional opinions and findings of a scientific and technical nature. While attempts were made to relate the data and findings to applicable environmental laws and regulations, the report shall not be construed to offer legal opinion or representations as to the requirements of, or local governmental agencies. Any use of the assessment report constitutes acceptance of the limits of ALL-TECH s liability. If you have any questions regarding this report, please do not hesitate to call us at (506) Thank you, 8 AIHA, Field Guide for the Determination of Biological Contaminants in Environmental Samples, 2 nd Edition, Fairfax VA, 2005, Page P age

7 Tyler DeRoche, Chem. Tech. Project Consultant ALL-TECH Environmental Services Limited 5 P age