A series of North Haven High School inspections by the Quinnipiac Valley Health Department, prompted by the asthmatic attacks of NHHS student Anthony Hannon, located no conditions that would cause respiratory problems.

However, Anthony’s mother Terry Hannon believes that air quality and hidden mold problems persist within the school.

Since his freshman year, Anthony has suffered a series of worsening asthmatic attacks whenever he enters the four-year-old NHHS, he has said, because of the school’s air quality, which ultimately necessitated his January 2009 enrollment in Branford High School. Before his enrollment in Branford, Anthony was being individually instructed at various North Haven sites outside the high school.

Terry has filed several complaints with the QVHD, which led to three NHHS walk-through inspections by John Laudano, QVHD registered sanitarian, in early May, Sept. 17, and Jan. 12.

“I did not observe any condition created by the building’s indoor air environment that I would suspect of causing respiratory irritation,” Laudano wrote of his most recent inspection in a Jan. 13 report to North Haven superintendent Sara-Jane Querfeld.

Terry was not satisfied. “The man walking through the school is a registered sanitarian, so he’s just doing visual things,” she said. “I feel like we’re hitting a brick wall that he’s not willing to investigate further. I feel like he’s on the town side, as opposed to helping actual people.”

Terry added that she thought an environmentalist specialist would be more apt to locate the cause of her son’s problems within the school, which she attributed to hidden mold. Terry pointed to several passages from a Connecticut Department of Public Health document on the QVDH website entitled “Get the Mold Out.”

“In situations where someone living in the home lacks a healthy immune system… [and] there is a concern about hidden mold, you may choose to hire an industrial hygienist or indoor environmental professional who is specifically trained in the area of indoor mold assessment,” the document states.

The document continues, “If you can smell mold or a musty odor, but can’t find it, it may be in an inaccessible location, such as in a wall cavity or above a suspended ceiling… Sometimes, the tip-off is that a household member is experiencing chronic respiratory problems that improve when they leave the building, but worsen when they return to the building.”

“What is concerning me the most is that [Laudano] is not a mold or hidden mold expert,” Terry said. “If you read the information from the QVHD website you will see that with any sort of hidden mold you need an expert in that area.”

Brian Toal, an epidemiologist with the State Department of Public Health, said that hidden mold is not commonly the cause of respiratory problems inside buildings.

“Even if there was hidden mold behind a wall, it is still behind a wall,” Toal said. “You have to inhale mold spores. If mold is behind a wall cavity, then there is not a lot of opportunity for the mold spores to get out into the breathable airspace.”

“That’s not always the case, but it most often is the case,” Toal continued.

Toal said that if there was mold in NHHS, the most likely indication would be an easily noticed odor. Short of that, Toal added, the next best way to locate hidden mold would be to “basically tear walls apart and look.”

However, Toal said that there are devices that can test for hidden water damage. “You can test for water moisture behind walls,” he said. “Mold doesn’t grow without water.”

QVHD district director Leslie Balch said that an environmental specialist would not find anything at NHHS that Laudano did not. “The most well-versed and best educated specialist in indoor air quality has been the one involved,” Balch said.

Laudano did not believe that hidden mold could be pinpointed as causing Anthony’s problems, as the student said to be have encountered problems in many areas of the school. If hidden mold was the cause, Laudano said, Anthony would have consistently encountered symptoms in the specific area around the unseen contaminant.

“There was no one certain area in the building where [Anthony] had more onsets of attacks,” Ladauno said. “He’s identified at least half a dozen areas in the building that he thinks are a problem. They’ve changed every time.”

Ladauno added that Anthony had claimed different triggers at each inspection, which also led the sanitarian to doubt a specific problem within the school.

Laudano’s initial inspection focused on the NHHS front lobby, he wrote in a May 18 report to Querfeld, because Terry said he experienced symptoms in the area. “I did not observe any condition created by the building’s environment that I would suspect of causing respiratory irritation,” Laudano wrote.

“It may be that conditions presented by some of the building’s occupants and by the naturally occurring constituents of the air within the school that are exacerbating the student’s condition,” Laudano added.

In May, Anthony said his triggers were perfumes, hand lotions such as Purell, chemistry lab odors, and cigarette smoke, especially in poorly ventilated spaces, Laudano wrote.

Laudano believed that the time of the year may have affected Anthony. “The student indicated that the spring of each year was when he had the most respiratory difficulty,” he wrote. “Perhaps there is a minor synergistic effect between spring-time pollen and some of the compounds listed above.”

“Yet, the student indicated that he has no breathing difficulty while outdoors or while participating in athletic events,” Laudano added.

Laudano wrote in May that he had referred the student to the Putting on AIRs asthma program.

Anthony’s problems continued and NHHS principal Dr. Russell Dallai requested a second inspection on Sept. 17. On this occasion, Ladauno wrote in a Sept. 22 report to Querfeld, Anthony said that various areas of each of the school’s three floors were causing his symptoms. Laudano toured Anthony’s classrooms with school officials while school was not in session.

“The building was clean and well-maintained throughout,” Laudano wrote. “The only odor detected was in the stairwell between the second and third floor. The odor was that of the vinyl stair treads and it was a very faint odor. The odor was not detected by any of the other people accompanying me.”

“I did not observe any condition created by the building’s indoor air environment that I would suspect of causing respiratory irritation,” Laudano added.

Laudano wrote that while the Hannon family desired an air sampling and testing, he suggested against it.

“You have to have an idea of what you’re looking for first,” he said last week. “We don’t know what we’re looking for because the symptoms have not been correlated to something.”

“There are tens of thousands of things we could be looking for,” Laudano added. “A test would be irresponsible and pointless. What are we looking for? What quantities are we looking for?”

Anthony’s symptoms persisted and Terry requested another inspection.

Laudano visited NHHS again on Jan. 12. Upon entering the building, he wrote, “many dozen students” traversed the lobby and “the space quickly became filled with the scents of perfumes which lingered.”

In addition to school officials, Anthony and Terry also accompanied Laudano inside the school during the January inspection. “On introduction, Anthony said he felt well,” Laudano wrote. “He did not exhibit respiratory discomfort.”

Terry directed the group to the school’s south foyer, Laudano wrote, where she pointed out a ceiling tile with a wet spot on it. Facilities manager Grant Peckham removed the tile for observation, and Laudano believed it safe.

“The water mark was about two inches in diameter on both sides of the tile, there was no discoloration, and there was no evidence of fungal growth on either side of the tile,” Laudano wrote. “The space above the removed tile contained an access port to plumbing and electrical components of the building’s mechanical systems. Mr. Peckham explained that the water on the tile was due to a valve which is accessed through the access port. The only porous building materials that are in the vicinity of the access port are gypsum wallboard and the removed ceiling tile. The wallboard was clean, dry, and did not show evidence of ever having been wet. I did not observe anything that would be cause of concern of poor indoor air quality or of adverse public health conditions.”

Anthony underwent an allergy evaluation a short time before the January inspection. “Mrs. Hannon confirmed the allergy report indicates that the causes of Anthony’s allergies are limited, and the predominant cause is pollen from oak and birch trees,” Laudano wrote.

Laudano added that the Hannons pointed out “historic” water stains and calcium marks.

“The [water] stains were faint, dry, and had no indication of mold or other contaminant which could be considered problematic,” Laudano wrote. “I wouldn’t consider [the calcium] to be an area of concern related to indoor air quality. The calcium could be vacuumed off of the brick during routine cleaning of the hallways.”

Laudano added that school officials offered to pay for another consultation by a doctor of the Hannons’ choice, which was accepted by the family.

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