TY - JOUR
KW - Sick building syndrome (SBS)
KW - Carbon dioxide
KW - Office workers
KW - Dose-response
KW - Multivariate logistic regression
KW - Vntilation
AU - Michael G Apte
AU - William J Fisk
AU - Joan M Daisey
AB - <p>Higher indoor concentrations of air pollutants due, in part, to lower ventilation rates are a potential cause of sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms in office workers. The indoor carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) concentration is an approximate surrogate for indoor concentrations of other occupant-generated pollutants and for ventilation rate per occupant. Using multivariate logistic regression (MLR) analyses, we evaluated the relationship between indoor CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations and SBS symptoms in occupants from a probability sample of 41 U.S. office buildings. Two CO<sub>2</sub> metrics were constructed: average workday indoor minus average outdoor CO<sub>2</sub> (dCO<sub>2</sub>, range 6-418 ppm), and maximum indoor one-hour moving average CO<sub>2</sub> minus outdoor CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations (dCO<sub>2</sub>MAX). MLR analyses quantified dCO<sub>2</sub>/SBS symptom associations, adjusting for personal and environmental factors. A dose-response relationship (p&lt;0.05) with odds ratios per 100 ppm dCO<sub>2</sub> ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 for sore throat, nose/sinus, tight chest, and wheezing was observed. The dCO<sub>2</sub>MAX/SBS regression results were similar. Implications: large increases in ventilation rate or improvements in ventilation effectiveness and/or indoor pollutant source control would be expected to decrease the prevalence of selected symptoms by up to 70-85%.</p>
BT - Indoor Air
C2 - LBNL-44385
DA - 07/2000
DO - 10.1034/j.1600-0668.2000.010004246.x
IS - 4
LA - eng
N2 - <p>Higher indoor concentrations of air pollutants due, in part, to lower ventilation rates are a potential cause of sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms in office workers. The indoor carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) concentration is an approximate surrogate for indoor concentrations of other occupant-generated pollutants and for ventilation rate per occupant. Using multivariate logistic regression (MLR) analyses, we evaluated the relationship between indoor CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations and SBS symptoms in occupants from a probability sample of 41 U.S. office buildings. Two CO<sub>2</sub> metrics were constructed: average workday indoor minus average outdoor CO<sub>2</sub> (dCO<sub>2</sub>, range 6-418 ppm), and maximum indoor one-hour moving average CO<sub>2</sub> minus outdoor CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations (dCO<sub>2</sub>MAX). MLR analyses quantified dCO<sub>2</sub>/SBS symptom associations, adjusting for personal and environmental factors. A dose-response relationship (p&lt;0.05) with odds ratios per 100 ppm dCO<sub>2</sub> ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 for sore throat, nose/sinus, tight chest, and wheezing was observed. The dCO<sub>2</sub>MAX/SBS regression results were similar. Implications: large increases in ventilation rate or improvements in ventilation effectiveness and/or indoor pollutant source control would be expected to decrease the prevalence of selected symptoms by up to 70-85%.</p>
PY - 2000
SP - 246
EP - 257
T2 - Indoor Air
TI - Associations between Indoor CO<sub>2</sub> Concentrations and Sick Building  Syndrome Symptoms in US Office Buildings: An Analysis of the 1994-1996 BASE Study Data
VL - 10
ER -