The Athens air traffic control tower - A case of a sick building

It is well understood that there are many sick professional buildings in use all over the world. Most of them are sited in or near the center of large cities where the ambient atmospheric conditions are not good. The sickness syndrome of those buildings combines both the indoor air quality and the local comfort regime. In many cases the responsibility for the formation of these syndromes lies with the not appropriate envelope design and the misuse of the building by the inhabitants. In the case of the Athens Air Traffic Control Tower, (ATCT), many sick syndrome cases were reported by the employs. In the present study, recently obtained indoor air quality estimates taken in the ATCT, will be presented and discussed in an attempt to face the problems reported by the building users. In this respect air quality measurements during selected meteorological conditions were taken. These include concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds, which in many cases have been considered responsible for bad indoor environments. The air samples were collected by suitable absorbing elements that were analysed in an advanced chemical laboratory equipped with the appropriate instrumentation for the determination of the VOCs. The measurements cover the indoor environment of selected building arias, the ventilation systems and the plenum under the floor. The data indicate that there are certain places in the building where the VOCs concentrations were well above outdoor levels while in other the concentrations were reasonable. Deeper analysis of the results showed that both the central ventilation system is not sufficient for the building needs and that in some areas either dew to cleaning negligence or to the construction material used, VOCs pollution sources have developed.