The influence of indoor environment in office buildings on their occupants: expected–unexpected (original) (raw)
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Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 1990
The influence of indoor climate factors on symptoms of the sick building syndrome was investigated in Greater Copenhagen , Denmark. Altogether, 2369 office workers in 14 buildings, where indoor climate measurements were made, filled out a questionnaire. Multivariate logisticregression analyses of the multifactorial effects on the prevalence of work-related mucosal irritation and workrelated general symptoms among the office workers showed that the concentration of macromolecular organic floor dust, the floor covering, the number of workplaces in the office, the age of the building, the type of ventilation, and two easily recognizable factors, the shelf factor and the fleece factor, were associated with the prevalence of symptoms.
Perceived indoor air quality, air-related symptoms and ventilation in Finnish hospitals
International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health, 2011
Good ventilation is more important in hospitals than in many other buildings. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the condition, performance and modernity of ventilation systems on the perceived indoor air quality (IAQ) and the indoor air-related symptoms of hospital personnel. An inspection and evaluation graded on a 1 to 3 scale of the condition, performance, and modernity of the ventilation systems was carried out in ten central hospitals in Finland. The perceived IAQ and the related symptoms were collected by means of an indoor air questionnaire survey among the workers in these hospitals. The condition, performance and modernity of the ventilation systems were good in 40% of the hospitals included in the research and poor in another 40% of them. In hospitals where the majority of the ventilation systems were assessed to be good, the prevalence of the indoor air-related complaints and symptoms was lower than in hospitals where the majority of the ventilatio...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019
Increased exposure times to various health risk factors and the vulnerability of building users might result in significantly higher prevalence rates of sick building syndrome (SBS) in a hospital setting compared to other indoor environments. The purpose of our study was to assess the association between SBS symptoms and measured environmental parameters at a Slovenian general hospital. A combination of a self-assessment study and field measurements was conducted in order to estimate the health risk factors for SBS symptoms among the users of a Slovenian general hospital. The Chi-square test was used to analyse the association between observed health and environmental parameters. The response rate was 67.5%. A total of 12.0% of healthcare workers at hospital wards reported at least six SBS symptoms, 19.0% reported 2–3 SBS symptoms. At the observed hospital wards, the most deviations were recorded for the level of lighting (83.3%), noise level (73.6%), and room temperature (55.3%). A...
Correlation of Indoor Air Quality with Working Performance in Office Building
Modern Applied Science, 2014
In Malaysia, most of office building utilizes mechanical ventilation system to maintain its indoor air quality. However, if the mechanical ventilation system is not properly installed and maintained, it will contribute to poor indoor air quality which leads to decrease the productivity of office workers. This study assessed the correlation of indoor air quality toward working performance at office building in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia using questionnaire survey. The findings revealed that the office can be categorized as sick building syndrome with the highest symptom is lethargy as marked by 75 % of the office workers. Since most of office workers are unauthorised to adjust temperature and air velocity of the air-conditioning system, this leads to the dissatisfaction toward indoor air quality where 40 % of the respondents are dissatisfied with temperature and air velocity. Ultimately, this study has successfully indicated that temperature has the strongest correlation with working performance as indicated by spearman correlation value of 0.648.
Association of Sick Building Syndrome with Indoor Air Parameters
Tanaffos, 2015
Energy crisis in 1973 led to smaller residential and office buildings with lower air changes. This resulted in development of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). The objective of this study was to assess the association of SBS with individual factors and indoor air pollutants among employees in two office buildings of Petroleum Industry Health Organization in Tehran city. The association between personal and environmental factors and SBS symptoms was examined by a reliable and valid combined questionnaire. Environmental parameters were measured using calibrated instruments. The results suggested that SBS symptoms were more common in women than men. Malaise and headache were the most common symptoms in women and men. Throat dryness, cough, sputum, and wheezing were less prevalent among employees in both offices. Light-intensity was significantly associated with some symptoms such as skin dryness (P = 0.049), eye pain (P = 0.026), and malaise (P = 0.043). There were no significant differenc...
Indoor air quality level influence sick building syndrome among occupants in educational buildings
International Journal of Public Health Science (IJPHS), 2022
In educational facilities, good and healthy indoor air quality is critical to ensure students’ focus and academic activities can be carried out efficiently. The goal of this study was to evaluate the link between indoor air quality level with sick building syndrome and health complaints among occupants. A cross-sectional study was conducted which involved 513 occupants. A modified MM040Na questionnaire was used in this study. Occupants’ workspaces were monitored for indoor air quality. The score obtained from the questionnaire and environmental factors were tested using statistical analyses incorporating test of differences namely Chi–Square, t-test, and non-parametric analysis. Logistic regression was conducted to evaluate relationship between exposure and occupants’ complaint. Results shows that some indoor air pollutants (carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, and particulate matter) are related to overall sick building syndrome (Odd Ratio, OR=1.348, 2.493, 1.958 respectively). General score of sick building syndrome (SBS) shows significant relationship with air motion (OR=2.220) and air flow (OR=2.515). Mucosal score of SBS suggest exposure risk towards indoor factors namely formaldehyde (OR=2.799), while dermal effect was associated from the exposure of Particulate (OR=2.88), carbon dioxide (OR=4.000), and air flow (OR=2.679). In educational environments, indoor contaminants have an impact on reported symptoms.
Thermal Comfort and Health Conditions in Air-Conditioned Offices in a Warm and Sub-Humid Climate
2012
Over the last couple of decades the use of air conditioning has become a requirement to obtain comfortable indoor environment, especially in buildings located in a geographical location with warm and humid climate, but air- conditioning does not necessarily respond to local consideration of thermal comfort, as a result, occupants feel uncomfortable. One of the main purposes of buildings was to provide healthy and comfortable environments; a poor design of thermal environment affects occupant habitability, causing effects on physical and mental performance. Field studies of the indoor environment in office buildings have proved that the indoor environmental quality was related with many Sick Building Syndrome symptoms (SBS). The objective of this research was to determine the effect of temperature in health problems, and identified the frequency of SBS symptoms in air- conditioned offices located in Colima City, Mexico. The method was based on the collection of weather data and subje...
Assessment of indoor air quality and users perception of a renovated office building
2020
Building renovations can adversely affect building occupants through the release of biological contaminants, gases and particulates. In this study, the research aim was to monitor the air quality of a renovated building and assess the impact of sick building syndrome (SBS) on the occupants. Post occupancy monitoring of the building was carried out after two months occupancy for the following environmental parameters: airborne microflora using an air sampler (SAS super 180) and a hand-held monitoring device (Graywolf advance sense IQ-610) to measure total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), CO 2 , CO and temperature and relative humidity in each office environment. In addition, an online (Qualtrics) structured questionnaire was used to assess occupants' perceptions of the indoor environment. Results of the airborne flora showed 833 cfu/m 3 recovered on a Malt Extract Agar (MEA) plate in the morning and 1213 cfu/m 3 in the afternoon. A similar result was noticed on a Plate Count Agar (PCA) plate during the morning period (731 cfu/m 3) and afternoon (1358 cfu/m 3). Results of TVOC monitored over one week showed that the first two days of monitoring had a high reading that peaked at 10,837 ppb and that the CO 2 concentration during that period was 1163 ppm. Online questionnaire analysis indicates that a majority of the staff who took part in the survey experienced some form of health abnormality, including headache, shortness of breath, itchy eyes/ears, loss of concentration and so on, especially in the first few weeks of returning to the office. The results from the study indicate that a large proportion (41%) of the respondents experienced thermal discomfort as a result of varying room temperature during their working hours. A high number of female participants experienced some form of SBS as compared to their male counterparts. The study findings show a direct relationship between high airborne mold counts, TVOC and adverse staff health perception of the building. The study raised a number of opportunities for estate managers to improve building performance based on occupants' preferences.
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2005
New technologies and materials have introduced a large quantity of new pollutants emitted to the indoor air. Energy conservation for economical reasons, resulting in low outdoor air supply rates, can become the reason of a poor indoor air quality. The cost of the deteriorated indoor climate, resulting in reduced comfort and losses in productivity, for the society is higher than the costs for the heating energy or ventilation systems in the same building. An experiment was conducted to determine how poor indoor air quality could cause involuntary changes in performance and occurring sick building syndrome symptoms. Twenty-four female subjects were exposed to three environmental conditions, while performing normal office tasks in a low-polluting room. Sick building syndrome symptoms, the perceived air quality and performance data were obtained. The acceptability of air quality was significantly better and the odour intensity was much lower under the conditions of high ventilation. The performance of the people, who took part in the experiment, in a two-digit addition task was significantly better under a high ventilation.