Indoor Environmental Quality and Health

Details

• Personal Author:
  Brooks BO ; Krieger GR ; Sullivan JB Jr. ; Van Ert MD
• Description:
  Approximately 71 million employees work indoors in the United States and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 21 million of these are exposed to some degree of poor indoor environmental quality. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that 69,000 severe headaches and 1051000 respiratory problems may be caused by poor indoor environmental quality. Employees working in service industries, in wholesale and retail trades, and in government jobs make up the bulk of those at risk. Changing energy use strategies in the 1970s resulted in construction of buildings with improved energy efficiencies and tighter sealing to prevent energy loss. As a consequence, health complaints relating to indoor environments began to increase, and the term tight building or sick building syndrome (SBS) was adopted to describe this problem. Complaints relating to the environment had previously been attributed to either poor work conditions or psychological factors. It soon became apparent, however, that health complaints could also be attributed to inadequate ventilation, mold overgrowth, lack of fresh air exchange, excess biological and chemical contaminants, dampness, or inadequate dilution of indoor contaminants. The phrase poor indoor air quality is used to describe environmental conditions indoors that can result in signs and symptoms attributable to the buildup of airborne contaminants. Such illness, however, is often multifactorial. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution, Indoor Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Toxicology Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Biological Effects Chronic Exposure Health Effects IAQ Indoor Air Pollution Indoor Air Quality Occupational Exposure Risk Factors
• ISBN:
  9780683080278
• Publisher:
  Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Book
• Place as Subject:
  Arizona ; Colorado ; OSHA Region 8 ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20055091
• Citation:
  Clinical environmental health and toxic exposures, second edition. Sullivan JB Jr, Krieger GR eds. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2001 Jun; :669-704
• Editor(s):
  Sullivan JB Jr; Krieger GR
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2001
• Performing Organization:
  University of Arizona, Tucson
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19950701
• Source Full Name:
  Clinical environmental health and toxic exposures, second edition
• End Date:
  20060630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ca3a18fb3e306da1741a9dd1b2357185145e3705bf4817be3406ee8e6fa0400f011291868ccf03c1ea68502f19bf9bfa2714f478bf82a01a009a7119bb5773b4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/217462/cdc_217462_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.27 MB ]