And it turned out they were buffing, and two days later he would be completely dyslexic. Zech Donovan's story may sound extreme, but it's all too familiar to experts in the field of indoor air quality. Five years ago MarketPlace told you about the problems with air quality in portable classrooms and how it was making some children sick. But it turns out it isn't just portables that have bad air. Those same problems, and more, are now showing up in school buildings themselves.
Moulds tend to form where building materials are wet.
Rand just finished a study looking at mould contamination and its effect on air quality in schools in the Atlantic provinces. He found that about half the schools he looked at had mould contamination and that older wood-frame schools had more of a problem than newer schools. But wherever mould shows up, it can affect people's health. Mould is a serious problem, but it isn't the only one. For each school building that has poor air quality, the source of the problem can be different.