The series of meetings held in response to the mold outbreak in Ingraham Hall ended Thursday as university health officials declared the mold problem resolved.
Keith Burdick of UW-Madison’s Environment, Health and Saftey department said the mold issue at Ingraham Hall was under control on Thursday. The mold forced some employees in the building to relocate for nearly a month while the building underwent cleaning.
Erik Thompson, a member of the environmental health department, said mold sample test results taken from all the reported infested rooms show indoor samples were at or lower than outdoor samples, and therefore do not have a quality issue.
Thompson said the health department remediated the problem with the exception of a few rooms waiting on results and a few new rooms requesting sampling.
While one employee still complained of various smells in rooms, Burdick said the smells were most likely not related to the mold situation.
“If there are odor issues or carpet issues we want to know about those, but we will deal with them separately outside of this,” he said. “The mold issue, for this season, can be put to bed.”
In addition to the mold, the meeting addressed water safety issues in the building.
Thompson said he took water samples from every water fountain in Ingraham Hall, testing for bacteria, but nothing showed up in the test results.
A drinking fountain on the third floor is still awaiting test results from the State Hygiene Lab for folic organic compounds and chemicals.
Thompson said he took this particular sample because the fountain is the farthest away from the building’s water pipes, and if folic organic compounds or chemicals are found in this fountain, they are likely to be in others. He called this “the worst case scenario.”
“As bigger things come to us, like this water sampling business, we will be sure to advertise that out,” Burdick said.
“If there is a problem there we will have to call maintenance and figure out what the problem is.”
Thompson said the final water sample results should be back in a few weeks.
