Correcting Poor Office Air Quality
Written By:
Henry P. Shotwell, CIH
Senior Vice-President
Atlantic Environmental, Inc.
Poor Office Air Quality is usually corrected by increasing
the volume of air introduced into the space. According
to the USEPA, the term, “Sick Building Syndrome”
(SBS) describes the situation where the occupants of a
building experience acute health and comfort effects only
when they’re inside the building, but no specific
illness can be diagnosed. Headache, inability to concentrate,
dry cough, irritated eyes, nose and throat are the most
common complaints. The EPA cites inadequate building ventilation
as the most common cause of SBS. As a result of the 1973
oil embargo and energy crisis, conservation measures called
for lowering the outside air ventilation rate from 15
cubic feet of fresh air per minute (cfm) per building
occupant to 5 cfm (www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/sbs.html).
Reducing the amount of fresh air in a room full of people
allows exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2) levels
to rise. Exposure to excessive CO2 is known
to produce many of the symptoms associated with SBS (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov).
While most of the SBS complaints can be eliminated by
increasing the ventilation rate, not all of them can be
corrected in this way. In urban areas, the “fresh
air” may have significant amounts of diesel truck
and automotive exhaust vapors, which may actually make
the situation worse if the ventilation rate is increased.
Bird dander and droppings, as well as moldy material,
can enter the ventilation system of a building. The bacteria
(such as Legionella), mold spores, pollens and other biological
materials may not cause a diagnosable illness or infection,
(although they certainly could), and increasing the ventilation
rate probably wouldn’t have much effect. For those
situations where increasing the amount of fresh air either
doesn’t help or makes the situation worse, further
investigation will be needed to identify likely causes
of the occupant discomfort. For additional information,
see the Wikipedia article at Wikipedia.org/wiki/sick_building_syndrome#cite.note,
or contact us at Atlantic Environmental, Inc.
Atlantic Environmental Inc
2 East Blackwell Street
Dover, NJ 07801
(800) 344-4414
(973) 366-4660
(973) 366-3116 Fax
info@atlenv.com
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