The effects of reduced ventilation on indoor air quality in an office building

Influence of indoor climate on the sick building syndrome in an office environment. The Danish Indoor Climate Study Group.

“…The indoor climate factors were mainly at levels normally considered acceptable (20,21) and in accordance with most indoor climate studies (3,4) even where high prevalences of symptoms occur. One must therefore consider whether the prevailing methods of measuring the indoor climate give a sufficient description of the relevant exposure.…”

“…Only a few epidemiologic studies have been made on the sick building syndrome (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). Complaints about work-related irritation of the mucous membranes and work-related general symptoms such as headache, fatigue, and malaise were prevalent and differed significantly from one building to another without being explainable by the results of a determination of several components of indoor pollution (3,4).…”

Indoor air quality and personal factors related to the sick building syndrome.

“…As defined by a working group of the World Health Organization, the "sick building syndrome" involves various nonspecific symptoms such as eye, skin and upper airway irritation, headache, and fatigue (1). Although several investigators have reported a higher prevalence of symptoms among persons working in certain "sick buildings" than among workers in other buildings (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9) and many different chemicals have been quantified in indoor air (9, [10][11][12][13][14][15], only a few investigations have studied the influence of specific indoor exposures on the prevalence of the sick building syndrome (6). In addition, only few investigations have taken into consideration the influence of personal (6,16) and outdoor climatological (17,18) factors on the prevalence of the syndrome.…”

Epidemiologic Approaches for Assessing Health Risks from Complex Mixtures in Indoor Air

“…For example, the crosssectional approach has been widely used to investigate indoor air pollution and respiratory symptoms and lung function in children (1 ); outbreaks of building-related illness have also been investigated with this approach (9). Disadvantages include the potential for bias introduced by the tendency ofpersons adversely affected by exposure to be underrepresented in the study population and the limitations of cross-sectional data for describing longitudinal relationships between exposure and disease.…”