Can the U.S. EPA BASE Study be used to provide reference levels for building-related symptoms in offices

Details

• Personal Author:
  Mendell MJ ; Mirer AG
• Description:
  Thorough environmental/mechanical inspections are often helpful in remediating buildingrelated symptoms (BRS, sometimes called sick building syndrome) in office buildings after complaint episodes. Using such inspections routinely in all buildings for prevention would be preferable, but not economically feasible. Availability of BRS "reference levels" for office buildings might identify buildings with unusually frequent BRS for investigation of unrecognized environmental problems. For this purpose, we assessed data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's BASE Study, collected on more than 4000 workers in 100 representative U.S. office buildings. Frequencies of specific symptom types varied widely within and across buildings. Multiple personal factors correlated strongly with symptoms and, if distributed differently across buildings, could substantially distort symptom comparisons. Simultaneous statistical control for multiple personal factors was not feasible. Thus, using unadjusted symptom data from the BASE study to provide reference levels for assessing individual buildings for potential environmental problems should be done with caution. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Air-quality-measurement Author Keywords: Building-related Symptoms Environmental-health Environmental-health-monitoring Indoor-environmental-quality Indoor Environmental Quality Office Buildings Qualitative-analysis Reference Levels Sick Building Syndrome Statistical-analysis Work-environment Worker-health Workplace-studies

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• Publisher:
  International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  California ; New York ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20038425
• Citation:
  Healthy Buildings 2009, Proceedings of the 9th International Conference & Exibition September 13-17, 2009, Syracuse, New York. Santa Cruz, CA: International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ), 2009 Sep; :756
• Email:
  mjmendell@lbl.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• NORA Priority Area:
  Work Environment and Workforce: Indoor Environment
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Lawrence Berkeley Lab
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20040901
• Source Full Name:
  Healthy Buildings 2009, Proceedings of the 9th International Conference & Exibition September 13-17, 2009, Syracuse, New York
• End Date:
  20080831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6efea4e1c46a865613b41d58b7b5ead299f5eeb278f0828a71b12c9aeb5c4be75653641b05eca2f4d516c241da52e16605e746d8e02e4bf6e210d077ffeec1cf
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/192139/cdc_192139_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 48.07 KB ]