Consultants find no airborne toxigenic mold in Barnstable schools; recommend spot checks, targeted cleaning and HVAC review

EnviroMed, the consulting firm the district hired to test indoor air quality, told the Barnstable School Committee on June 4 that its inspections found no airborne toxigenic mold or evidence of airborne mold amplification across the district’s nine schools.

The finding follows a four‑month evaluation in which EnviroMed staff collected 236 air samples and 102 surface samples and logged a total of 528 inspection hours. "There was no airborne toxigenic mold in any of the 9 schools, in any of the samples collected," EnviroMed CEO Larry Cannon said during the committee meeting.

That lede addresses the most immediate community concern: whether airborne, highly hazardous mold was present. The consultants said the air metrics they measured — temperature, relative humidity, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde and particulates — were within commonly used guidance ranges. Where EnviroMed did find mold, it was primarily on surfaces and not suspended in the air, the firm said.

EnviroMed outlined what it called a layered…