Sick building syndrome (SBS) among office workers in a Malaysian university — Associations with atopy, fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and the office environment

Lim, Fang Lee; Hashim, Zailina; Said, Salmiah Md; Than, Leslie Thian Lung; Hashim, Jamal Hisham; Norbäck, Dan

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.06.137

Cited by 49 publications

(53 citation statements)

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“…eye, throat and nose irritations or coughing) and (iii) dermal symptoms (i.e. itching skin, face, hands or scalp) (Amin, Akasah, and Razzaly 2015;Lim et al 2015;Lu et al 2016;Shan et al 2016). The negative effects of SBS are interconnected, as the occurrence of one effect can lead to the manifestation of another.…”

Section: Tssa (2010)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, Zhang et al (2012) identified the damp and mouldy environment as a simulator for occurrence of SBS symptoms, as the presence of occupants in these environments can increase the incidence of work-related symptoms, whilst the possibility for remission may decrease. In damp buildings, mould and bacteria grow by enjoying the hospitable environment existing in settled dust (Lim et al 2015). Endotoxin (found in the outer cell membrane of gram-negative bacteria) (Gehring et al 2008) and (1,3)-β-glucan (found in the cell-walls of mould) (Iossifova et al 2007) are the two common compounds living in building dampness, causing proinflammatory effects (Lim et al 2015).…”

Section: Tssa (2010)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In damp buildings, mould and bacteria grow by enjoying the hospitable environment existing in settled dust (Lim et al 2015). Endotoxin (found in the outer cell membrane of gram-negative bacteria) (Gehring et al 2008) and (1,3)-β-glucan (found in the cell-walls of mould) (Iossifova et al 2007) are the two common compounds living in building dampness, causing proinflammatory effects (Lim et al 2015). Given these explanations, it can be inferred that the level of seriousness and the period of emerging symptoms once the occupants are exposed to sick environments can be highly variable.…”

Section: Tssa (2010)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These symptoms may result in affecting the residents' well-beings, or diminishing their productivities rates once they are working. Majority of these symptoms are found to be transient and their effects will be dissipated when the occupants leave the place such as work-related symptoms (Lim et al 2015;Tsai, Lin, and Chan 2012;Zhang et al 2011b), though some of these symptoms can have a long-lasting effects on residents' health namely respiratory-related issues (Crook and Burton 2010;Zhang et al 2012). In order to better understand SBS, the following sections review the major causes of SBS and their negative effects aiming at assisting practitioners to be familiarized with the effects of SBS and its relative symptoms as well as how to mitigate its effect on the occupants.…”

Section: Tssa (2010)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The concept of SBS was initially developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1983 (Lim et al 2015;WHO 1983). In the definition presented by WHO, SBS has been defined as 'a collection of nonspecific symptoms including eye, nose and throat irritation, mental fatigue, headaches, nausea, dizziness and skin irritations, which seem to be linked with occupancy of certain workplaces' (WHO 1983).…”

Section: Introductory Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sick building syndrome: are we doing enough?

AlWaer

Omrany

Ghaffarianhoseini

et al. 2018

Architectural Science Review

172

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Health and well-being are vitally important aspects of people centric building design and are the roots of productivity. Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a collection of factors that can negatively affect physical health in several ways. Besides physical health is also related to psychological well-being because the human body is one interactive biological system. This paper focuses on reviewing the current state of knowledge on building sickness syndrome which has been prevalent as a building illness since the 1970s especially in offices and schools. While the concepts of intelligent, smart and sustainable buildings have gained considerable attention during recent decades, there is now increasing attention being given to designing healthy buildings. This study provides a review about SBS symptoms. Several negative effects of SBS are identified and potential solutions are advocated. Finally, the study stresses the role of built environment and concludes that ongoing research towards tackling SBS and developing healthy indoor environments should not be limited to a single formula as any health-related building design approach is dependent on several interacting factors. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Tssa (2010)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tssa (2010)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tssa (2010)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tssa (2010)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductory Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Sick building syndrome: are we doing enough?

AlWaer

Omrany

Ghaffarianhoseini

et al. 2018

Architectural Science Review

172

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

A Conceptual Framework for Personalization of Indoor Comfort Parameters Based on Office Workers’ Preferences

Mirzaeifar¹,

Daee²,

Singh³

2018

Product Lifecycle Management to Support Industry 4.0

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Prevention of building-related illnesses and improving indoor air quality has become an emerging research area not only because of the comfort of workers in an office or the quality of the perceived air, but also because it can provide financial benefits to both employees and employers through a potential reduction in prolonged sick leaves. Therefore, building facility managers attempt to achieve the most comfortable and healthy environment conditions for the office workers. However, the parameters associated with achieved comfort vary from person to person as workers` preferences, as well physiological characteristics, are heterogeneous. In the ideal case, the indoor health parameters should be personalized based on individuals` feedback. This paper presents a computational framework for personalization of environmental parameters based on limited office workers' feedback. We propose that by using current state of the art machine learning methods it is possible to learn the preference model of individuals, by employing both the limited feedback and the relevant literature on healthrelated symptoms. The framework is explained and discussed in a potential example scenario. Evaluation based on real data is left as a future work.

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Identification of Health Risk Factors and Their Parameters

Dovjak

Kukec

2019

Creating Healthy and Sustainable Buildings

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This chapter highlights the importance of identifying health risk factors and their parameters for healthier built environments. In Sect. 3.1, epidemiological terms such as "determinants of health", "health risk" and "health hazards", are introduced. In Sect. 3.2, health risk factors and their main parameters in built environments are further identified and classified into six groups: biological, chemical, physical, psychosocial, personal, and others. Detailed definition of health risk factors and their main parameters, followed by the results of epidemiological studies proving the association between potential health outcomes and health risk factors, are described in Sects. 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7. Identified and classified health risk factors and their parameters are the basis for the identification of single and multi-group interactions among them, described in Chap. 4.

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Sick building syndrome (SBS) among office workers in a Malaysian university — Associations with atopy, fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and the office environment

Cited by 49 publications

References 77 publications

Sick building syndrome: are we doing enough?

Sick building syndrome: are we doing enough?

A Conceptual Framework for Personalization of Indoor Comfort Parameters Based on Office Workers’ Preferences

Identification of Health Risk Factors and Their Parameters

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