Once our children begin middle school and high school where physical education is part of their curriculum the risk of locker room mold exposure can become a serious problem for children with allergies.

Taking showers in moisture filled locker rooms and putting on moist gym clothes as well as eating food left in lockers is the perfect atmosphere for the growth of mold.

Mold is found almost everywhere. Mold will grow on virtually all substances, providing moisture is present. There are molds that grow on paper, carpet, walls, lockers, locker room floors, tubs, showers, wood and foods just to name a few areas. As moisture accumulates in school locker rooms, mold growth will occur, predominantly when the moisture problem remains untreated. Because, there is no practical way to eliminate mold in the locker room or to eliminate our child’s exposure to mold; it is vital that we learn how to eliminate the effects mold can have on our children if the suffer from an allergy to mold.

Did you know that children carry mold spores from the locker room into the classroom on their clothes, books and purses?

Mold requires oxygen, food and moisture to grow, mold are tiny airborne spores, which have no trouble finding a place in locker rooms. Mold needs moisture, locker room showers are a perfect place. Food left in lockers in the locker room developing mold, very unhealthy for the student that has an allergy to mold. Children suffering from mold allergies experience eye irritation as well as irritation in the nose, skin, throat and lungs. This can lead to a severe allergic reaction even hospitalization. Even for a healthy child repeated exposure to the constant build up of mold in the locker room can become a health risk.

Locker rooms should always be kept clean and dry as possible to reduce mold, but that is out of our control. What we can control is our child’s risk of an allergy reaction to the mold bacteria.

Custodians are careful to clean and mop showers at the end of the day, but they do not always get the floors perfectly dry; moisture breeds mold. The use of industrial disinfectants can be an advantage in preventing the growth of additional mold and help to destroy the mold already present.