English

A sample of 269 workers, selected randomly from 1600 employees of a sealed 42-storeyoffice building of a major bank in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, responded to the standard RoyalSociety of Health Advisory Group questionnaire about Sick Building Syndrome.Upper airways respiratory symptoms occupied a prominent position, with a prevalence ofaround 40%, whereas the lower airways manifestations frequencies were below 20%.

In order to determine the a etiological factor of Sick House Syndrome (SHS), indoor airquality of 35 houses in Miyagi prefecture of Japan, where occupants are suspected ofsuffering from SHS, had been investigated during the summers in 2000-2002. Theinvestigation included the measurement of indoor chemical substance concentration and aquestionnaire regarding residential environment and subjective symptoms.As a result, the formaldehyde concentrations in 71% of all houses exceeded the guideline ofJapan.

In this study, the houses where residents were suspected of having sick house syndromelocated in Miyagi prefecture of Japan, had been investigated during the summer of 2001. Theinvestigation included the measurements of the aldehydes and volatile organic compounds(VOCs) concentration, air tightness level, airflow volume at inlets/outlets and ventilation rate.This paper shows the results of indoor air quality and ventilation rate in eight houses. Allthese houses, which are air tight except one house, use mechanical ventilation system.

Healthy housing strategies tend to focus on good comfort and on avoiding specific health riskagents. These agents are generated by building features and occupancy and may come fromboth indoor and outdoor environments. This research project focuses on building features andthe impact they have on the indoor environment. The interaction between the building andoccupancy patterns is studied. This paper describes the selection of the smallest set ofindicators that allows a simple but effective evaluation procedure of the health performance ofhousing.

A framework for performance criteria for healthy and energy-efficient buildings was developed within the context of two European funded Projects: PeBBu and HOPE.PeBBu, Performance-Based Building, is a Thematic network under the Competitive and Sustainable Growth programme, which started 1 September 2001 and will run for 4 years.

We gathered exposure data on indoor air pollution and investigated the dose-response slopefactor for indoor air pollutants, such as volatile organic compounds, aldehydes and radon.Population cancer risks (that is the theoretical cancer deaths) were estimated from exposure tothe pollutants. In addition, the damage costs, due to their risks, were estimated usingwillingness to pay and value of a statistical life, which were investigated by a dichotomouscontingent valuation method.

In some indoor environment surveys, respondents are asked to recall conditions acrossseasons (e.g. to recall summer conditions during a winter survey). This study assessed thereliability of such recall, based on a survey of 728 people in 12 UK office buildings. In bothwinter and summer, the questions addressed both summer and winter conditions, andbuilding-related symptoms. Correlations were calculated between equivalent responses ineach season (e.g. odour in winter, as rated in the summer and winter surveys). The bestcorrelated IAQ questions were those concerning specific smells (e.g.

Sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms were investigated in a laboratory study of low humidity environments: 30 subjects were exposed to clean air at 22C with 5%, 15%, 25% and 35% RH and 30 were exposed to polluted air at 18C, 22C and 26C with a constant moisture content of 2.4 g/kg dry air and at 22C/35%RH. The subjects were exposed to each condition for 5 h and reported the intensity of SBS symptoms. Five hours of exposure to clean air at 5% RH caused only eye symptoms, while 5 h of exposure to polluted dry air at 15% RH aggravated a number of symptoms of the skin, nose, throat and lips.

The particle deposition on ceilings causing the soiling of induction outlets is mainly caused by the features of mixed ventilation.This paper offers a solution to the problem. The search for a clean outlet is made easier with the proposed optical and experimental technique that suggest to visualize the soiling patterns of an outlet by photographing deposited sodium chloride crystals. These tracer-particles stem from an atomizer and aerodynamically behave like the particles responsible for the soiling of ceilings in reality.

Velocity measurements were performed in the air flow resulting from two horizontal opposite air jets along a ceiling. Results show how the air velocity decreases along each of the two air jets, compared to the velocity decrease along a single free air jet.Experimental results are compared with a correlation from the literature. The agreement is good.