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Sick building syndrome and building-related illness.

Kreiss K

Environmental and occupational medicine, 4th edition. Rom WN, Markowitz SB, eds. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006 Dec; :1373-1380

https://shop.lww.com/Environmental-and-Occupational-Medicine/p/9780781762991

20031618

Since the late 1970s, consultants and public health agencies at the local, state, and federal levels have been barraged with requests for investigative assistance to determine the origins of and solutions to complaints of office workers regarding their indoor environments. The most frequent constellation of building-associated complaints is called sick building syndrome. It consists of mucous membrane irritation of eyes, nose, and throat; headache; unusual tiredness or fatigue; and, less frequently, dry or itchy skin. The hallmark of these symptoms is their tight temporal association with building occupancy and their rapid resolution, within minutes to hours, when affected office workers leave implicated buildings. Sick building syndrome is distinguished from more medically serious building-related illness by its subjective nature, reversibility, and high prevalence within implicated buildings and across the nonindustrial building stock in North America and Europe. Building-related illnesses include asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, inhalation fever, rhinosinusitis, and infection. In contrast to sick building syndrome, these building-related illnesses are less common and may result in substantial medical morbidity. Building related asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and rhinosinusitis are usually accompanied by sick building syndrome symptoms among coworkers. Whether similar etiologies contribute to sick building syndrome and these building-related illnesses is still speculative.

Risk-factors; Industrial-environment; Industrial-exposures; Ventilation-systems; Air-contamination; Air-quality; Indoor-air-pollution; Workplace-studies; Closed-building-syndrome; Respiratory-system-disorders; Bronchial-asthma; Office-workers; Respiratory-hypersensitivity; Epidemiology; Indoor-environmental-quality

20061201

Chapter

Rom WN; Markowitz SB

2007

9780781762991

DRDS

Environmental and occupational medicine, 4th edition

WV