Ventilation Type as a Risk Factor for Building-Related Symptoms in the California Healthy Building Study

Details

• Personal Author:
  Daisey JM ; Deddens JA ; Fisk WI ; Mendell MI ; Seavey W ; Smith AH
• Description:
  The California Healthy Building Study assessed risk factors for building-related symptoms among office workers in 12 representative public office buildings in northern California, using a worker questionnaire, building inspections, and environmental measurements. No environmental contaminants measured were above existing health standards. Mechanical ventilation, either without air-conditioning (MECH) or with air-conditioning (AC), was associated with increased odds ratios (ORs), relative to natural ventilation, for a number of building-related symptoms, after adjustment for personal, job, and workplace factors in logistic regression models. Adjusted ORs [and 95% 'confidence intervals (CI)] for symptoms in MECH and in AC respectively included: eye symptoms, 1.7 [0.9-3.4] and 2.1 [1.1-4.0]; upper respiratory symptoms, 1.8 [1.0-3.2], and 1.9 [1.1-3.2]; multiple respiratory symptoms, 2.9 [1.0-8.0] and 2.8 [1.1-7.6]; multiple mucus membrane symptoms, 3.3 [1.2-9.5] and 3.4 [1.3-9.1]; and skin symptoms, 6.0 [1.6-22] and 6.0 [1.7- 21]. A set of symptoms (toothache, earache, and shoulder pain) hypothesized to be unrelated to indoor air quality was, as predicted, not associated with MECH or AC: 1.0 [0.5-2.1], and 1.1 [0.6-2.0], suggesting that reporting bias does not explain the findings. Exploratory adjustment for correlated occupant responses within study spaces, using generalized estimating equations, produced little change in most ORs or CIs. These findings corroborate European studies reporting that mechanical ventilation and air-conditioning are associated with increased risk of building-related symptoms. One potential explanation for these findings, supported by other research, is that building ventilation systems can produce or disseminate air contaminants. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Conditioning Air Movements Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution Air Pollution, Indoor Environmental Monitoring Epidemiology Eye Foreign Bodies Irritants Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Skin Ventilation Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Air-conditioning Air-filters Air-flow Air-quality Air-quality-control Air-quality-measurement Air-quality-monitoring Biological-effects Biological-monitoring Breathing-atmospheres Exposure-assessment Eye-irritants Mucous-membranes Occupational-exposure Occupational-hazards Occupational-health Respiratory-irritants Risk-factors Skin-irritants Statistical-analysis Ventilation-equipment Ventilation-systems Work-environment Work-organization Worker-health Workplace-studies

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• ISSN:
  0002-9262
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  141
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20035616
• Citation:
  Am J Epidemiol 1995 Jun; 141(11)(Suppl):S33
• Contact Point Address:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DSHEFS, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45226
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1995
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Epidemiology. Abstracts of the 28th Annual Meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, Snowbird, Utah, June 21-24, 1995
• Supplement:
  Suppl
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1560c055b4d48ba12daa4af40492825a4c44f32b981f68bacf67c462c3c4a206fa6839b98d661203f58d91e242d07b1280664488f65f3bf43aeef545e9fe9285
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/187415/cdc_187415_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 314.08 KB ]