sick building syndrome

There is little knowledge on if and how indoor environmental quality influences students’ attendance and productivity. However, this issue has been of growing interest the recent years in the scientific community and results are showing that student learning performance is significantly affected by indoor environmental quality factors. In the present study the learning performance is examined through numerical test scores achieved by primary school students in their classrooms.

For that study, IAQ measurements were carried out in 3 residential Singapore dwellings. CO2 levels were higher in air-conditioned bedrooms than in naturally ventilated bedrooms. Another survey demonstrated that almost all occupants using air-conditioners while sleeping presented one or more SBS symptoms than when using natural ventilation.

That research is based on the assumption that there are differences among normal subjects as to their vulnerability to stress-related symptoms to health/illnessThe study aims at increasing the understanding of SBS complaints in relation to personality factors.A relationship between personality characteristics and health-related behaviors, and between personality characteristics and perceived health is demonstrated.

The sick house syndrome has become a serious problem in Japan recently. It is important tospecify and quantify the source of chemical pollution. In this study, passive samplers for concentration of chemical substances in the air, ADSEC for emission rate of chemical substances from building materials and PFT method for ventilation rate in a room were developed. These passive methods enable investigation of many houses at a time. Indoor air quality of a newly built house was measured by these passive methods in summer and winter.

Sick syndrome episodes were reported by the employees of Athens Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT). In this study recent indoor air quality measurements made in ATCT are presented and discussed. The data indicated that VOCs concentrations were above outdoor levels in certain places of the building, some actions were taken to improve the indoor environment and afterwards a second set of measurements were made, inside and outsite the ATCT building : the results indicated an improvement of the indoor air quality.

In this paper the author relates his experiment : while interviewing unhappy building occupants he realized that it was necessary to step back from the specific complaints and begin with the basics of proper ventilation, moisture control, temperature control before embarking on costly scientific investigations to solve the problem.

As ventilation is a significant consumer of energy the rates of ventilation have often been minimized, particularly after the energy crisis in the early 70s, in order to reduce equipment and energy costs. This has caused in many countries indoor air quality problems. It has been shown that ventilation rates have adverse effects on communicable respiratory illnesses; on sick building syndrome symptoms; on productivity and perceived air quality. Often the prevalence of SBS symptoms is higher in air-conditioned buildings than in naturally ventilated buildings.

Fungi presence are often liked to the sick building syndrome. In this paper the authors describe two case studies on the role of fungi in the occurrence of SBS.

A cross-sectional study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of sick buildingsyndrome (SBS) among the office workers in Mauritius. Data were collected through selfadministeredquestionnaires answered by 384 occupants in 25 randomly selected buildings. Awalk-through investigation and some indoor climate variables were also monitored. All datacollected were analysed using Epi-Info and SPSS softwares. P values less than 0.05 wereconsidered significant.Personal factors such as sex, allergy and active smoking were significantly related to SBSsymptoms.

During the past few decades various symptoms and illnesses have been attributed to nonindustrialindoor environments. Problems associated with the indoor environment are acommon health issue faced by clinicians; generally, these complaints are regarded as beingdue to sick building syndrome. Mauritius is a small island with a subtropical climate.Mauritius is also a country where the prevalence of bronchial asthma among the population ishigh. No data on the sick building syndrome were available for Mauritius.