BRISTOL – City Hall East was closed Monday due to reports of mold in restrooms, said a letter sent to city employees.

“High levels of mold were detected in the women’s bathroom downstairs and reported to me on Friday evening,” read the digital correspondence from Mayor Jeff Caggiano. 

The mayor sent another message late Monday.

“We closed the offices today out of an abundance of caution. Elevated levels of mold spores were detected in the bathrooms downstairs and the Mayor’s Office after the heavy rains on Thursday. There is a known water infiltration issue that causes flooding in heavy rains, and mold.”

Caggiano said that their landlord was working to address these problems.

“We do expect that the bathrooms, Mayor’s Office, and the break room will be closed for the short-term for continued remediation,” said Caggiano.

Caggiano said they chose to close the building Monday because they didn’t have air samples for the building yet.

Employees have since been brought back to City Hall East but asked to refrain from using the aforementioned facilities and areas near the mayor’s office until they could be further remediated with the property owner.

The closure became the subject of conversation at the Tuesday night Bristol Board of Finance meeting as well after Board Chair John Smith asked the mayor about the situation.

“There was a mold situation that was visible in the bathroom maybe a month or two ago,” said the mayor. “It’s something that’s been ongoing. With strong rains on Thursday (of last week), the water infiltrated again and we’ve had some areas of high mold.”

The mayor said there was no standard for what was acceptable with mold in a public facility so working with it was challenging.

For the time being, the mayor’s office area of the building is closed and so are lower level restrooms as City Hall looks to work with the property owners to remediate the situation.

According to osha.gov, “Currently, there are no federal standards or recommendations, (e.g., OSHA, NIOSH, EPA) for airborne concentrations of mold or mold spores.”

Mold may cause a variety of problems for some and none for others says the CDC.  “Some people are sensitive to molds. For these people, exposure to molds can lead to symptoms such as stuffy nose, wheezing, and red or itchy eyes, or skin,” according to CDC.gov.

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