Acknowledging that the incidences of SBS symptoms are straightforward, its characterization and linkages to an indoor exposure require more in-depth analysis. The term SBS has been in use for some time now and widely recognized, in spite of suggestions for alternative names, such as problem buildings, building-related occupant complaint syndrome, abused building syndrome. Concerns about human health due to deteriorating indoor environmental quality are steadily increasing with a public outcry among the building occupants and also challenging lawsuits to redress grievances. These are designed to be airtight on energy-saving consideration-windows remain sealed, deprived of natural ventilation and daylighting, and HVAC system re-circulates the air in the building, with the minimal replacement of fresh air. īuilding-related illnesses have been viewed as ubiquitous in modern high-rise buildings. The rapid spread of symptoms often leads to the virtual closure of the facility, and resolution of the illness also takes place within a short time after leaving the facility (Laumbach 2008 Takeda et al. These symptoms may appear among occupants in office buildings, schools, public buildings, hospitals, and recreational facilities. The SBS manifests as the complex spectrum of ill health symptoms, such as mucous membrane irritation (rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, sore throat, eye irritation), asthma symptoms (chest tightness, wheezing), neurotoxic effects ( a headache, fatigue, irritability), gastrointestinal disturbance, skin dryness, sensitivity to odours. Many other early psychogenic illnesses reported from schools, hospitals, prisons, and in warfare, exemplify the results of various reasons, like prominent social concerns and exposure to physical, biological, or chemical agents (Bartholomew and Wessely 2002 Sirois 2013). Vitus’ dances in Northern Europe, the hysterical fits of women due to smells from hemp steeped in water (Ramazzini 1713), industrial outbreak among workers in a cotton mill in the eighteenth century England ( Gentleman’s Magazine 1787), are historically recorded events. Tarantism, the dancing mania of peasant women (animal-like squealing, obscene shouting, laughing, or weeping) during the fifteenth to seventeenth century, St. Outbreaks of building-related illnesses, collectively termed as sick building syndrome ( SBS) among building occupants reported in the recent decades, draw remarkable resemblance to early events of epidemic hysteria. Related regulatory standards and strategies for management of SBS and other illnesses are elaborated. The mechanisms and causative factors of SBS and illnesses include, for example, the oxidative stress resulting from indoor pollutants, VOCs, office work-related stressors, humidification, odours associated with moisture and bioaerosol exposure. Based on the peer-reviewed documentation, this chapter elaborates the magnitude of building-related health consequences due to measurable environmental causations, and the size of the population affected. A building occupant manifests at least one symptom of SBS, the onset of two or more symptoms at least twice, and rapid resolution of symptoms following moving away from the workstation or building may be defined as having SBS. The accumulated effects of a multitude of factors, such as the indoor environmental quality, building characteristics, building dampness, and activities of occupants attribute to SBS. Studies on large office buildings from USA, UK, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Germany, Canada, China, India, Netherlands, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand, substantiate the occurrence of SBS phenomena. The SBS is a complex spectrum of ill health symptoms, such as mucous membrane irritation, asthma, neurotoxic effects, gastrointestinal disturbance, skin dryness, sensitivity to odours that may appear among occupants in office and public buildings, schools and hospitals. Sick building syndrome (SBS) and building-related illnesses are omnipresent in modern high-rise buildings.
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