Toxic mould in council building

Tauranga City Council chief executive Garry Poole. Photo/File

Thirty-five Tauranga City Council staff members have been relocated after toxic black mould caused one employee to become ill.

Council chief executive Garry Poole said the mould issues were discovered after one staff member, who had been employed at the council for about six weeks, had become ill.

"He raised the issue that the work area he was in contained some mould. We relocated the staff member and undertook some testing of his work environment.

"The results came back on December 4 that we had a positive test for stachybotrys, black mould."

After receiving advice from the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, the medical officer of health and Worksafe NZ, Mr Poole said the 35 staff members who shared the same open space work environment as the man who fell sick were relocated to two rooms in the council building.