For more than two months, officials from multiple Virginia health agencies have received reports of elevated carboxyhemoglobin, with many of those being tested believing that the numbers were the result of air they had breathed inside Covington Middle School.
Officials from the Alleghany Highlands Public Schools say if the test that measures the amount of hemoglobin cells bonding with carbon monoxide is higher than what is considered to be normal, air tests indicated it’s not because the students and teachers who have attended and worked at the district’s middle school are breathing in excess amounts of carbon monoxide while in the building.
Roanoke City & Alleghany Health District officials agree with the district’s assessment but add that the reports they are receiving do show a trend of higher readings than what is considered to be standard. As a result, the local branch of the Virginia Department of Health is digging deeper in hope of finding an answer.
“We realize now that it is likely that a baseline level of elevated carboxyhemoglobin in the community,” RCAHD Health Director Cynthia Morrow said during a press conference held on Thursday morning at First Christian Church in Covington. “Since January, the health department has been working with subject matter experts to try to identify what the cause of elevated community levels of carboxyhemoglobin represents.”
The school district had called the press conference to provide the results of a third independent air quality assessment it had commissioned since a carbon monoxide leak was detected in the school’s cafeteria and had invited Morrow to give remarks as well.
While the latest assessment conducted by Richmond-based ECS Mid-Atlantic did recommend improving the air flow throughout the building, which has been in use since 1940, the carbon monoxide levels remain well below the limits set by OSHA.
However, the health district is regularly receiving reports of between 2% and 4% dating back to Jan. 31, when Covington Middle School was closed following the detection of strange odors in the building as well several students and staff members feeling ill.
Morrow shared that while her department had closed its case at CMS shortly after the gas leak was fixed, their investigation of what has led toslightly elevated levels of carboxyhemoglobin continued.
RCAHD spokesperson Christie Wills said the department had completed interviews with more than 150 residents since February, and are coordinating with other state agencies and local healthcare providers on a wider community investigation. They plan to provide a full report once this work is complete. She said about fewer than 10 of those cases “occurred within the window for possible exposures related to the CMS event in January.” (Updated April 11 with new numbers.)
Labs equipped to measure blood contents, such as those managed by Salem-based LewisGale Regional Health Systems and Roanoke’s Carilion Clinic, consider anywhere between 1.5% and 2% to be standard. Morrow said the slightly higher numbers should not be considered a health risk, and no one who has been found with heightened carboxyhemoglobin has needed additional treatment or hospitalization.
In past interviews, Morrow said that heightened carboxyhemoglobin does not tend to be a problem for most people until that number approaches 15%.
Still, health officials want to know why they keep receiving reports with higher levels.
Morrow said there has been no evidence of excess carbon monoxide put into the air by irregular sewage issues in the area and recent EPA reports on Covington’s WestRock paper mill also show emissions to be at or below acceptable levels.
As a result, RCAHD has expanded its investigation to include looking at data available of carboxyhemoglobin tests done prior to Jan. 31. The health district is also sending samples to other testing facilities outside of Southwest Virginia to make sure there is not a calibration problem.
“We’ve gone back in time, and we’ve asked the hospitals, the healthcare systems to pull their retrospective data,” Murrow said. “That’s why we can say ‘this is a community issue that’s been going on for a while.
“… It’s a complicated challenge we’re taking on. But our primary goal is to determine the significance of these findings.”
Also speaking at the press conference was ECS director of industrial hygiene Christopher Chapman, who has been involved with all three of the air quality inspections at Covington Middle School. He said that while the report that was filed earlier in the week indicated that there is no sign of excessive carbon monoxide in the building, there was a higher than normal amount of carbon dioxide in the air due.
“[Carbon dioxide] itself is not a health hazard, but it can be a surrogate or indicator of poor ventilation,” Chapman said.
As a result of those findings, AHPS superintendent Kim Halterman said that plans have been made to do a thorough repair of the middle school’s ventilation system this summer, and in the interim, a number of ventilation units that can be placed in the windows will be used in the final months of the school year.
Both Chapman and Halterman also said the source of the odors detected on March 31 that led to classes being held on the school’s third floor to be relocated elsewhere in the building remains a mystery. Chapman said the odor was never found during the ECS inspection, so the only conclusions at this point are speculative.
Halterman said since the March 31 incident, teachers and students have returned to using third-floor classrooms.
The superintendent was also asked if the district had any comments about the lawsuit filed against AHPS by four Covington Middle School parents, but declined because she said her office had yet to be formally served. She did address a couple of the complaints and allegations that are included in the suit.
- The suit asks that students be relocated from the current middle school to another facility in the community, such as the former Clifton Middle School, that was opened in 2001, and is currently being used as an alternative education center. Halterman said right now the school board believes it is in the best interest of the students to stay at the Covington location.
- Halterman said that to the best of her knowledge, none of the newly installed detectors at Covington Middle School have gone off as a result of sensing carbon monoxide. Her understanding is that some monitors might have needed new batteries and as a result were making a “chirping” sound to indicate a dying battery, and that the only time a monitor did go off, it was determined that it was a portable device brought to the school by a student, but was being kept in book bag and was not getting the proper ventilation to work properly.
- Attendance levels at the middle school, which between the school reopening on March 18 through March 31 were at normal levels, have fluctuated since the March 31 incident, Halterman said. “We’re in the process of analyzing where those attendance numbers are at the very moment,” Halterman said. “We would like to encourage our students to be in school. We do certainly understand the concerns that are present in the community.”
- District officials also said that truancy proceedings will continue to be enforced as dictated by state laws. However, Halterman said they want to work with the families that still have concerns about returning and would prefer alternate educational options, but communication between them and the district needs to remain fluid.
