Carbon Dioxide, Particulates, and Subjective Human Responses in Office Buildings Without Histories of Indoor Air Quality Problems

Hill, Bert A.; Craft, Bobby F.; Burkart, John A.

doi:10.1080/1047322x.1992.10388030

Cited by 18 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Zweers et al (1992) in their large office building study in the Netherlands observed lower symptom prevalence rates in naturally ventilated buildings though C 0 2 levels commonly used as an indicator of ventilation conditions were lower in mechanically ventilated buildings. No relationship between C 0 2 levels and symptom prevalence was observed in the Danish Town Hall study , the Swedish primary school study , and the U.S. studies of office buildings conducted by Hill et al (1992) and Hodgson et al (1992).…”

Section: Ventilation Conditions and Symptom Prevalence/occupant Dissamentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Cross-sectional studies have ranged from a relatively few buildings (Salisbury, 1984;Hill et al, 1992;Hodgson et al, 1992) to larger building and occupant populations Burge et al, 1987;Ruotsalainen et al, 1993;Jaakkola et al, 1993). Such observational studies have had limited ability to detect significant relationships because ventilation rates were not under the control of investigators and ventilation assessments were made only indirectly (C02 levels and nominal ventilation rates).…”

Section: Study Design and Interacting Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relationships Between Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality: A Review

Godish

Spengler

1996

Indoor Air

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Adjustment of ventilation rates in buildings is widely practised, both to provide good air quality on a proactive basis and to mitigate air quality problems associated with occupant complaints. However, both cross‐sectional and experimental epidemiological studies have reported mixed results and have for the most part failed to establish definitive relationships between ventilation rates and symptom prevalence or dissatisfaction with air quality. The difficulties involved in establishing such relationships may be due to a variety of confounding factors which include limitations in study design and interaction effects; difficulties in controlling ventilation rates in experimental studies; inadequate mixing of supply air in occupied spaces; high source strengths for some contaminants; dynamic interactions between sources and ventilation rates that result in increased contaminant emissions; contaminant dose‐response sensory effects which are log‐linear; potential contaminant generation within ventilation systems themselves; and multifactorial genesis of sick building symptoms. There is limited evidence to suggest that ventilation rate increases up to 10 L/s person may be effective in reducing symptom prevalence and occupant dissatisfaction with air quality and that higher ventilation rates are not effective. Because of complex relationships between ventilation rates, contaminant levels, and building‐related health complaints/dissatisfaction with air quality, the use of ventilation as a mitigation measure for air quality problems should be tempered with an understanding of factors which may limit its effectiveness.

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Section: Ventilation Conditions and Symptom Prevalence/occupant Dissamentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Study Design and Interacting Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships Between Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality: A Review

Godish

Spengler

1996

Indoor Air

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“…Four studies were reported in the review by Seppänen et al (1999) where MM and LResp symptoms prevalence was observed to increase in relation to indoor CO 2 concentrations, but the relationship was not quantified with a measure of risk. MM irritation including dry and/or hoarse throat; stuffy nose; and itching, burning or otherwise irritated eyes were observed in three of the studies (Groes et al, 1995;Hill et al, 1992;Sohn et al, 1994). Finally, Bright et al (1992) included difficulty breathing as a component in a satisfaction metric (other components were fatigue, drowsiness, and lack of concentration) found to be correlated with indoor CO 2 , however the relative influence of the difficulty breathing symptom in the composite metric was not reported.…”

Section: Consistency Of Findingsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Associations Between Indoor CO₂ Concentrations and Sick Building Syndrome Symptoms in U.S. Office Buildings: An Analysis of the 1994-1996 BASE Study Data

Apte

Fisk²,

Daisey³

2000

Indoor Air

276

203

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Higher indoor concentrations of air pollutants due, in part, to lower ventilation rates are a potential cause of sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms in office workers. The indoor carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration is an approximate surrogate for indoor concentrations of other occupant-generated pollutants and for ventilation rate per occupant. Using multivariate logistic regression (MLR) analyses, we evaluated the relationship between indoor CO2 concentrations and SBS symptoms in occupants from a probability sample of 41 U.S. office buildings. Two CO2 metrics were constructed: average workday indoor minus average outdoor CO2 (dCO2, range 6-418 ppm), and maximum indoor 1-h moving average CO2 minus outdoor CO2 concentrations (dCO2MAX). MLR analyses quantified dCO2/SBS symptom associations, adjusting for personal and environmental factors. A dose-response relationship (p < 0.05) with odds ratios per 100 ppm dCO2 ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 for sore throat, nose/sinus, tight chest, and wheezing was observed. The dCO2MAX/SBS regression results were similar.

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“…Our findings also confirm the correlations between airborne fungi and environmental parameters (i.e., CO 2 and RH) longitudinally. These environmental variables have been associated with perceptions of health of office occupants (22,45). With the models we built, we can further investigate the impact of airborne fungal exposures on office workers' perceptions of health and their working efficiencies, controlling for potential confounders.…”

Section: Factor 1 For Airborne Fungimentioning

confidence: 99%

Populations and determinants of airborne fungi in large office buildings.

Chao

Schwartz

Milton

et al. 2002

Environ Health Perspect

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Bioaerosol concentrations in office environments and their roles in causing building-related symptoms have drawn much attention in recent years. Most bioaerosol studies have been cross-sectional. We conducted a longitudinal study to examine the characteristics of airborne fungal populations and correlations with other environmental parameters in office environments. We investigated four office buildings in Boston, Massachusetts, during 1 year beginning May 1997, recruiting 21 offices with open workstations. We conducted intensive bioaerosol sampling every 6 weeks resulting in 10 sets of measurement events at each workstation, and recorded relative humidity, temperature, and CO2 concentrations continuously. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify groups of culturable fungal taxa that covaried in air. Four major groupings (PCA factors) were derived where the fungal taxa in the same groupings shared similar ecological requirements. Total airborne fungal concentrations varied significantly by season (highest in summer, lowest in winter) and were positively correlated with relative humidity and negatively related to CO2 concentrations. The first and second PCA factors had similar correlations with environmental variables compared with total fungi. The results of this study provide essential information on the variability within airborne fungal populations in office environments over time. These data also provide background against which cross-sectional data can be compared to facilitate interpretation. More studies are needed to correlate airborne fungi and occupants' health, controlling for seasonal effects and other important environmental factors.

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Carbon Dioxide, Particulates, and Subjective Human Responses in Office Buildings Without Histories of Indoor Air Quality Problems

Cited by 18 publications

References 8 publications

Relationships Between Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality: A Review

Relationships Between Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality: A Review

Associations Between Indoor CO₂ Concentrations and Sick Building Syndrome Symptoms in U.S. Office Buildings: An Analysis of the 1994-1996 BASE Study Data

Populations and determinants of airborne fungi in large office buildings.

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Carbon Dioxide, Particulates, and Subjective Human Responses in Office Buildings Without Histories of Indoor Air Quality Problems

Cited by 18 publications

References 8 publications

Relationships Between Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality: A Review

Relationships Between Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality: A Review

Associations Between Indoor CO2 Concentrations and Sick Building Syndrome Symptoms in U.S. Office Buildings: An Analysis of the 1994-1996 BASE Study Data

Populations and determinants of airborne fungi in large office buildings.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Associations Between Indoor CO₂ Concentrations and Sick Building Syndrome Symptoms in U.S. Office Buildings: An Analysis of the 1994-1996 BASE Study Data