Sick Building Syndrome Essay

CHAPTER 1 : RESEARCH PROBLEM & PROBLEM STATEMENT

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Do you regularly suffer from irritating symptoms including headaches, a runny nose and itching? If so, it could be a case of Sick Building Syndrome. The problem could be with the building you work in and live in, your working environment or the way you or living environment.
This first part looks at what Sick Building Syndrome actually is, what causes it and who can be affected. The advice is aimed primarily at employers, building owners and building managers; but building designers, planners, architects, engineers, furnishers and suppliers may also find it useful.
Almost everyone occasionally feels unwell because they are suffering from one or more common symptoms of discomfort such as headaches, dry throat or sore eyes. A 1984 World Health Organization Committee report suggested that up to 30 percent of new and remodelled buildings worldwide may be the subject of excessive complaints related to indoor air quality (IAQ) (Environmental Protection Energy, 1991). But there are occasions when, for no obvious reasons, people working in particular buildings experience these sorts of symptoms more often than is usual. The symptoms tend to increase in severity with time spent in the building and improve over time or disappear away from the building (Accepta, 2014). This is often described as Sick Building Syndrome. The main symptoms associated with Sick Building Syndrome are dry or itchy skin or skin rash, dry or itchy eyes, nose or throat, headaches, lethargy, irritability, or poor concentration and stuffy or runny nose.

Sick Building Syndrome is not a recognised illness. It is simply a convenient term to describe a particular phenomenon and cannot be diagnosed precis...

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...plications affecting efficiency. More focus is necessary on the indoor environment in schools, day care centres, hospitals and nursing homes for elderly, because children, hospital patients and elderly are sensitive subgroups. There are a number of indications that the indoor environment at home is normally worse than in the indoor office environment. The population spends most time at home, and children are exposed at home for many years (National Safety Council, 2009). This suggests that improvements of the home environment may be a cost-effective to reduce the indoor exposure burden in the population. The link between indoor and outdoor air pollution should not be ignored, as most of the exposure to outdoor pollutants occurs indoors. Finally, the function of energy saving and climate changes for the indoor environment and SBS will be an important future issue.