Nicholls addresses mold in Powell Hall offices over the break

Nicholls State University hired a disaster and response environmental company to take care of the mold contamination in Powell Hall during the Christmas break, after faculty expressed their ongoing health concerns.

To solve the problem, EnviroCare cleaned all the affected offices in Powell Hall, and will be conducting periodic air samples throughout the next six months to assure no other forms of pathogens accumulate.

“They wiped down all of the office’s vents, air ducts, walls and replaced the contaminated ceiling tiles,” Stan Silverii, superintendent of facility services and project management, said.

The case of mold in Powell’s faculty offices, detected mid semester last fall, was deferred by Nicholls to be taken care of at the end of the academic semester.

In a previous interview to the Nicholls Worth last semester, Terry Braud, vice president of finance and administration, said that the mold did not pose a “big risk” to anybody’s health. Braud also said that there wasn’t proof that the pathogens growing inside faculty members offices were the cause of the health issues they were facing.

“They could be experiencing some type of allergies,” Braud said.

However, two faculty members, Assistant Professor of Marketing, J. Robert Field, and Marketing Instructor, Laura Valenti, did experience respiratory problems throughout last semester that may be mold related.

Both faculty members, whose offices are adjacent to one another and have a connected air conditioning system, were diagnosed with chronic sinusitis and expressed symptoms of allergies, drowsiness and migraines.

In the fall of 2016, Fields asked Ramaraj Boopathy, service professor of biological sciences at Nicholls, to collected a sample of the pathogens present in the air inside his office. The pathogens found were white mold, Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria and Pseudomonas Aeruginosa bacteria, according to Boopathy’s analysis report. All of those pathogens are established to be agents that cause respiratory diseases upon exposure.

“Dr. Boopathy put some special treatment plates on the top of my bookshelf so that they would get exposed to the air coming from the air duct,” Field said. “Each plate detects something different. Those plates proved that there was something else growing in my office beside mildew.”

Field also said he has complained to administration about an “accumulation” in his office for the past few years. According to Field, the accumulation was previously mistaken for mildew, which led to the underestimation of the issue’s gravity.

Over the course of 2 1/2 years, Field has been consulting a specialist doctor, J. Vance Broussard, about his sinus issues. Without knowing the cause of his ailments, Field went through multiple treatments of six-week-long antibiotics with “very little relief.” He also endured three surgical procedures in a six-week time frame last spring.

“In 2015, I was on antibiotics for 38 weeks out of the 52 weeks in a year,” Field said.

According to a letter from Broussard in September 2016, the pathogens growing in Field’s office matched the pathogens found in his sinus cavity. After learning this information, Field was granted permission to move offices and administration took action to solve the problem. Field explained he is being given worker’s compensation and being reimbursed for his medical expenses.

Valenti said there is a chance the pathogens have affected her too. She also said she experienced several rounds of antibiotics and steroid treatments over the same period and because the medications did not alleviate her symptoms, her doctor thought it necessary to undergo sinus cavity surgery in July of 2016.

“I’ve been tested for allergies in my blood, and it was verified that I did not have allergies,” Valenti said. “Over the course of 2014, 2015 and 2016, my medical records indicated that I was sick more times in the year than not.”