 In recent times, public and private sectors have been faced with the issue of poor indoor equality and mold. It is said that exposure to poor indoor equality can cause short-term eye, nose, and throat irritation as well as headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. The government of St. Lucia is currently faced with the constant challenge of relocating staff, conducting deep cleaning, and in some cases, abandoning building structures altogether. President Postinell in the Department of the Public Service spoke with Facilities Management Officer Lyndon Barry-George's in order to better understand the situation. I don't think that the poor equality is directly the cause of the mold, but it can lead to creating an environment for the mold to thrive. A lot of times what has been done is that we move into existing buildings. These existing buildings are not newly built, and if they are newly built, which means whether or not the construction was to standard. If the air conditioning system, which is supposed to create that artificial environment within the building, is not designed properly, then you're additionally creating a situation where the environment will allow for the mold to thrive in it. So we need to make sure on our end that standards are being followed when we're constructing. If you do not construct correctly, insulate your walls if you need to, then what you have is it may not happen in the early stages, but as the building gets older, then you find that the conditions, it does not have that resistance to sustain the conditions that you need to maintain on the inside. So standards are key to everything that we do. Before we did our remedial works, you had a lot of surface cracks. So you had areas where rain, water comes in, and the water is being stored inside that wall. So you have a lot of condensation. Then you have on the afternoon, the sun hits it. So what does the sun do? It dries from the outside, and it brings everything on the inside. What does the AC do on the inside of the space? It dries, and it brings everything here. They stop at the center, and that's where you have condensation forming, and you have that moisture is favorable for mold to start growing from inside here. So what happened is treating the system from the source. Mold always has a source, especially when it relates to a building. That was one of the sources of the mold. He said mold can be resolved if officers adhere to precautionary measures. If you're transferring from one ministry from an old building into a new location, one has to make sure that certain protocols are followed. The cleaning of your books thoroughly, properly, and bringing it into the space, properly quarantined into the new space to make sure that you don't transfer the bacteria into the new space. It's also a situation of what do we maintain? How do we, our housekeeping on the inside of the space? Because a lot of persons may think that the conditions are only created by the mechanical equipment. It's not my books on my desk, the janitorial services within the building. How frequently do we do a deep cleaning of the space to make sure that dust particles are not kept? Because you have dust particles, the janitors come to clean, if they do not clean properly what do you have? If the AC system does not provide that assurance that you need, that the air is balanced, and you have a condition on the inside that's favourable for the dust particles to get attached to the water droplets in the air, you have mould, right? Now most times what happens is that you don't detect it until someone says, I'm feeling sick, I'm not feeling too well, and then it happens too late. So that's why we're trying our best on the public service and to advise persons on the way forward how to deal with the situation because most times we may be slightly the cause of it. Over time, poor air quality can trigger the effects of asthma and constant exposure can lead to respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, or even cancer. Permanent Secretary in the Department of the Public Service Peggy and Sudat reported that the government is seeking creative and new interventions to deal with this problem. We as a public service have implemented a number of measures, among them would making arrangements for medical consultations for staff, medical consultations and testing for staff to ensure that they are not impacted negatively by the issues in the workplace. Additionally, for the longer term solution, we have identified some areas and we have brought in some consultants or experts to do a more in depth analysis so that we can find out exactly what is happening and what exactly is causing the problems to come up with a longer term solution for dealing with them. The Assistant Permanent Secretary in the Department of the Public Service, Augusta Duval Tuce, is calling on all public servants to assist in alleviating the aforementioned problem. Over the last few years, we've had a prevalence of occupational health and safety issues affecting many of our government agencies. In order to mitigate these issues, we have instituted a preventative maintenance regime. That regime includes biannual deep cleaning of the office space, the quarterly servicing of the air-condition units and proper storage of household chemicals. In addition to these measures, we encourage officers to take personal responsibility of their office space. We encourage officers who have offices to occasionally open your windows so that fresh air can come in to better ventilate the office space. In addition, we are making a very special appeal for officers who eat at the desk. Please, please officers do not leave left over food in your desk as this practice creates the environment for the development of mold. The government of St. Lucia continues to work tirelessly as it seeks to eliminate the problem. From the communications unit in the Department of the Public Service, Miguel Morissette reporting.