HOUSTON - After inspecting a middle school where dozens of employees and students have reported being sick, an expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she found several air-quality problems there that could have led to sickness.

But Nancy Burton, an industrial hygiene expert with the CDC, said Friday that the specific cause of the illnesses that have been reported since August will likely never be determined.

Burton, who inspected the school and met with employees for two days this week, said school officials initially underestimated the extent of the mold and humidity problems at Key Middle School.

"It has problems, but there are ways to address them," she said. "The school district is starting to do that and is working on making it an environment that would be safe to work in."

Burton and her CDC colleagues probably won't issue formal findings for several months.

Burton said the symptoms reported by those at Key - including nausea, dizziness and difficulty breathing - are similar to those reported by others exposed to overly damp buildings.

She said the district should continue cleaning up the visible mold at Key, controlling the humidity through the ventilation system and limiting the water drainage that can accumulate under the building.

Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said the CDC inspection shows the district should have acted quicker when her staff first raised concerns about Key in late August.

Three weeks after the teacher's union demanded the building's evacuation, the district said students and teachers would be temporarily removed. District officials have maintained since early September that the building was safe.
Key has been holding classes since Monday at nearby Fleming Middle School, an arrangement district spokesman Terry Abbott said will likely continue through at least December.

"We made the best decisions we could make with the information we had at the time," Abbott said Friday. "Keep in mind, we had independent, outside experts who said the building was safe for occupancy."
District officials asked the CDC to inspect Key after U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, invited the federal agency to tour the school at the request of the teachers' union.

Before that, the district had hired a private contractor which concluded that its tests for mold and other toxins didn't turn up any major problems. The city health department and the fire department also ran tests.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5174621.html

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