MISSION VIEJO : Illness in Portables Blamed on Air Flow

Capistrano Unified School District officials said Monday that poor ventilation in four portable classrooms at Carl H. Hankey Elementary School may have caused some students to feel sick.

The rate of illness among students in the four portables was roughly 20% higher than among students in four permanent classrooms at the school, according to the results of a survey sent out to more than 200 parents last week.

Although tests conducted last week showed no dangerous levels of formaldehyde in the classrooms, it was discovered that valves in the air intake systems of two of the buildings, which allow outside air to enter the rooms, were closed and may have been restricting air flow, said William D. Eller, associate superintendent.

“We think the focus of this problem has to be on ventilation,” Eller said. “We think this problem is related to carbon dioxide rather than toxins. It seems that when the buildings are ventilated, we don’t have symptoms, so there might be a correlation.

On Monday, comprehensive tests for a variety of organic compounds were conducted by Dr. Joseph Fedorick of UC Irvine’s School of Medicine. The results should be available within 10 days, Eller said.

A meeting was held at the school last week with more than 50 parents who became concerned when two students in one of the rooms both suffered seizures.

District officials told the parents that there is no evidence linking the portables to the seizures. They said one of the students had previously suffered seizures and there is a possibility that the second student may be diagnosed with epilepsy.

Some of the parents told district officials that their children have been suffering unexplainable minor illnesses since moving into the new rooms in January and asked that the children be removed from the rooms as a precaution.

But the students have remained in the classrooms, and Eller said no further problems were reported at a second meeting held with a dozen parents last Friday.

“The portables seem to be healthy, but there are two issues facing us here,” Eller said. “The first is: Do we have appropriate ventilation? And the second is: What is the proper time span for out-gassing?”

Out-gassing is a standard procedure for new portable classrooms that accelerates the natural release of gases from compressed materials such as plywood.

Insufficient time for out-gassing may be the reason why strong odors in two classrooms at Truman Benedict Elementary School in San Clemente reportedly made one teacher and dozens of students sick in December.

No dangerous levels of toxins were found in either of the classrooms at Truman Benedict after a series of tests were conducted by Fedorick and the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Teachers in the portable classrooms at Carl H. Hankey are being advised to keep the windows and doors open whenever possible and to keep fans inside the buildings turned on at all times.

“We’re interested in developing procedures that we hope will help not only future portable installations in this district, but in other districts as well,” Eller said.