Volatile organic compounds, respirable dust, and personal factors related to prevalence and incidence of sick building syndrome in primary schools.

Abstract

Possible relations between incidence and prevalence of sick building syndrome (SBS), indoor exposures, and personal factors were studied in a four year longitudinal study among personnel (n = 129) in six primary schools. The The sick building syndrome (SBS) has various nonspecific symptoms such as eye, skin, and upper airway irritation, headache, and fatigue.' Such symptoms are not uncommon in the general population but several studies have shown that these symptoms are more common among people working in so called sick buildings.2'2 Most of these studies only dealt with symptoms among office workers.2"79 A survey performed in a tricounty region in Sweden, however, showed that not only offices but also schools and day care centres were common among the sick buildings known by the occupational health care centres.'0In two recent studies, we found a relation between the prevalence of symptoms in sick buildings and the concentration of volatile organic hydrocarbons (VOC)" and the presence of wall to wall carpets.'2 Other studies have shown that the amount of fleecy material in the building,4 age of buildings,5 room temperature,9 the type of ventilation system,23 and passive smoking9 influence the prevalence of symptoms. Personal factors may also have an influence.4" Although several cross sectional studies on the sick building syndrome have been published,2"8 longitudinal studies aimed to identify factors related to changes of symptoms are sparse.7 12One aim of this study was to identify indoor exposures and personal factors related to the prevalence of chronic SBS symptoms and the incidence of new symptoms. Another was to study the effect of changes over time in personal and building related factors on the prevalence of SBS.

Prevalence of Sick Building Syndrome-Related Symptoms among Hospital Workers in Confined and Open Working Spaces

“…One phenomenon that may have existed was lower indoor air humidity at higher air exchange rates. In 1990, an experimental study found that moderate steam humidification during the winter reduced the prevalence of throat symptoms, air dryness, and static electricity (Norbäck et al, 1990b). However, this can't be evaluated in this study due to the subtropical climate of Taiwan; steam humidification is not used in winter.…”

Evaluation of a real-time method for monitoring volatile organic compounds in indoor air in a Japanese university

“…Because VOCs are a cause of SBS or MCS, the target VOC concentrations should be minimized. However, it is difficult to specify the target compound, and SBS may actually be a result of compounds [16]. Therefore, to reduce the risks of SBS or MCS, the reduction of not only individual compounds but also total VOC (TVOC) concentrations is very important [17].…”

A Case-Control Study: Exposure Assessment of VOCs and Formaldehyde for Asthma in Children

“…These VOCs were selected from previous studies and Korea indoor air quality management act (Norback et al, 1990;Mendell, 2007;Ministry of Environment, 2008). The extraction solvent was carbon disulfide and all extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography (Agilent-6890 Plus; USA) with a flame ionization detector (HP 7683 series autosampler) using a supelco fused silica capillary column (30.0 m/250 μm i.d./1 μm).…”