For months now, university officials have been fighting mold growth in four campus buildings - health services, communications arts, the Williams Center and Anderson Hall - while assuring students and staff people their health safety was not an issue.

Now, an environmental review conducted by Compass Environmental Inc. of Kennesaw supports that stand.

Available information "leads us to conclude that there does not appear to be a health risk associated with mold exposure to building occupants," a memorandum released Friday says.

"The Compass report includes a discussion of an indoor air quality study that was performed to quantify mold contamination originally identified by Mr. Gene Anderson in several buildings on the Georgia Southern University (GSU) campus," the memo says. "The sampling and analytical methods applied were consistent with industry standards and at this time we have no reason to question the quality of the data."

The Compass memorandum states that "risk to persons (i.e. typical healthy adult individuals) occupying the impacted building areas currently appears to be low."

However, "changing conditions may exacerbate mold concentrations," so the firm recommends "that appropriate measures be implemented to mitigate mold concentrations."

Georgia Southern officials are doing just that, says Anderson, the university's public safety director. "The report says there are things that need to be done and we're going to do it."

Anderson says intensive cleanup efforts begun earlier in the summer are continuing and building repair is underway where warranted.

An air conditioning system design problem in the health services building - where mold problems were discovered in the computer server room that is rarely occupied for more than a few minutes - is being addressed.

The university's public safety director said a new roof for the communications arts building is 85-90 percent complete and that necessary repair will be followed by a general cleanup of the building, along with removal and replacement of leak-damaged ceiling tiles, etc. Dehumidifiers are being installed in various buildings.

More concise inspections campus-wide and an ongoing effort to control mold growth in all 75 of the university's buildings is and will continue to be a priority, Anderson said.

"We're going to address problems, fix things when we find them," according to the university's public safety director. "We're going to stay on it until we get it."

But, Anderson doesn't expect Georgia Southern's mold problems to disappear, for one simple reason: the school is located in Southeast Georgia where hot, humid weather is the norm. So mold growth is a given, inside local buildings and even more so on the outside.

"We're going to have this and we're going to deal with it," he said. "The good news is, it's no threat to our students, faculty and staff."

Angela Lee can be reached at 489-9454 or AngelaLee91@hotmail.com.