Report Details Long-Standing Mold Problems at Coast Guard Academy

New London — A federal agency has released the final report of its yearslong evaluation of indoor dampness and mold at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, documenting conditions that employees have said sickened them.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, issued the report last week.

In a cover letter dated Wednesday, the agency urges academy officials to post the report in a prominent place accessible to employees for 30 days, and it calls for the establishment of a special health and safety committee comprising representatives of both employees and management to consider the report’s recommendations.

On Friday, the academy’s external affairs office issued a statement in which it said the academy has been working since 2018 to address “the inherent challenges faced in historic buildings within a humid environment.” It said that over the past two years, the academy has fashioned “an infrastructure development action plan” for facility upgrades that incorporate the latest technology.

Susan Bibeau, president of Local 219 of the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents about 130 non-faculty employees at the academy, was skeptical the NIOSH report would spur academy officials to act.

“They will not make meaningful changes, in my opinion,” Bibeau, who retired in 2023 after working at the academy for 14 years, said Friday.

Bibeau said academy officials have consistently denied the scope of the mold, moisture and air-quality problems that have plagued the academy’s buildings since as far back as the 1980s. She said the union would see to it that the NIOSH report is widely disseminated around the campus.

“Potential hires need to know about the risks, as do the people who work there,” she said.

Bibeau said she herself had “an ugly experience” that began in 2017 when she developed what was diagnosed as Dampness and Mold Hypersensitivity Syndrome, a respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to indoor air dampness. She said about 25% of those exposed to such dampness develop the illness, which affects more women than men.

She said she was aware of cases in which cadets at the academy became sick because of the mold and air-quality problems.

Christopher LaMonica, a former professor of government at the academy, said the mold problem was one of the reasons he left the school in January after a 15-year stint there. He said the union of which he was then a member, which represented about 60 academy faculty members, refused to do anything about the academy’s inaction.

“We were never even informed about what was going on,” LaMonica said Friday. “I kept asking what the plans were for remedying the problem and I never got a clear answer.”

According to the NIOSH report, the federal agency began its evaluation of the academy in June 2022 after receiving requests that it do so from union representatives and employees concerned about indoor dampness, mold, and ventilation system maintenance in multiple buildings ...”

The report describes the academy campus as including 14 buildings on about 100 acres, including residence halls, dining rooms, lecture halls, laboratories, study rooms, auditoriums, student and recreational services, library, museum, guest housing and facilities/maintenance. It says about 420 employees work at the academy and about 1,100 cadets live there.

Health issues experienced by employees, the report says, included systemic inflammatory response syndrome, autoimmune conditions, burning and irritation of eyes, nose and throat; chronic rhinitis; gastrointestinal issues; headaches; light sensitivity; endocrine problems; excessive sweating; short-term memory loss; and hearing issues.

NIOSH inspectors visited the academy Aug. 9-11, 2022, and March 7-9, 2023. They found that high indoor humidity had been documented in multiple buildings from 2011 through 2022. They saw “high indoor humidity levels; indoor air above the dew point; and condensation leaking from ventilation supply vents, duct work, and chilled water piping.”

The agency's report recommends specific actions for reducing moisture and humidity in basements and crawl spaces; maintaining ventilation systems for optimal indoor air quality; and correcting sources of dampness and remediating moisture- and mold-damaged materials.

In its statement, the academy’s external affairs office said that while the improvements the academy plans to make are pending, the academy will “continue to employ the best mitigation and remediation practices to continue to support the safety of the entire Coast Guard Academy community.

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