News

University addresses mold issues

University of Wisconsin health officials started to address a mold outbreak Wednesday affecting several UW departments located in Ingraham Hall.

The Department of Environment, Health and Safety took the lead examining the effects of mold in the building, and is currently analyzing how to fix the problem.

"We looked at some of the rugs, and surfaces and window areas and spaces, a typical indoor air quality walkthrough," said Andy Garcia-Rivera, director of the UW Department of Environment, Health and Safety. "We also interviewed the occupants, asking very specific questions about how they're feeling."

Garcia-Rivera said the Department of Environment, Health and Safety is also working to improve its communications with occupants of Ingraham Hall, who say they filed complaints up to 10 months ago.

Garcia-Rivera said he agrees the issue should have been taken care of earlier and added there was a lack of communication between affected parties and administration.

"It was mentioned … there was a gentleman there who communicated his concern and had been asking for assistance for 10 months," Garcia-Rivera said. "For whatever reason, I don't find that to be an acceptable situation, and for whatever reason, miscommunication or not, [repairs] will be taking place now."

On the other hand, Garcia-Rivera said, Madison has had a very wet season, and with a lot of rain comes mold problems.

According to Garcia-Rivera, the Department of Environment, Health and Safety is making efforts to centralize communications within the department in order to solve such problems in a more timely way in the future.

The mold outbreak has represented a health problem to some of the Ingraham occupants, who have reported allergic reactions.

"One worker … has moved offices five times since then, and he is still on medication for medical problems related to the environment on the ground floor, where water is literally dripping from the ceilings and rising up from the floors," UW graduate student Alex Nading said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald Wednesday.

According to Nading, most of the occupants of the affected areas of Ingraham Hall were not impressed with what higher-level university officials had to say at the meeting.

"Our basic message was that the university's response to the problem has been unplanned, uncoordinated and most of all, slow and poorly communicated," Nading said.

The walkthrough in Ingraham Hall, which started Wednesday, will continue today.