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Association of subjective health symptoms with indoor air quality in European office buildings: The OFFICAIR project
Author(s) -
Sakellaris Ioannis,
Saraga Dikaia,
Mandin Corinne,
Kluizenaar Yvonne,
Fossati Serena,
Spinazzè Andrea,
Cattaneo Andrea,
Mihucz Victor,
Szigeti Tamás,
Oliveira Fernandes Eduardo,
Kalimeri Krystallia,
Mabilia Rosanna,
Carrer Paolo,
Bartzis John
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
indoor air
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1600-0668
pISSN - 0905-6947
DOI - 10.1111/ina.12749
Subject(s) - environmental health , sick building syndrome , indoor air quality , medicine , environmental science , environmental engineering
The aim of this study was to explore the association between the building‐related occupants’ reported health symptoms and the indoor pollutant concentrations in a sample of 148 office rooms, within the framework of the European OFFICAIR research project. A large field campaign was performed in 37 office buildings among eight countries, which included (a) 5‐day air sampling of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), aldehydes, ozone, and NO 2 (b) collection of information from 1299 participants regarding their personal characteristics and health perception at workplace using online questionnaires. Stepwise and multilevel logistic regressions were applied to investigate associations between health symptoms and pollutant concentrations considering personal characteristics as confounders. Occupants of offices with higher pollutant concentrations were more likely to report health symptoms. Among the studied VOCs, xylenes were associated with general (such as headache and tiredness) and skin symptoms, ethylbenzene with eye irritation and respiratory symptoms, a‐pinene with respiratory and heart symptoms, d‐limonene with general symptoms, and styrene with skin symptoms. Among aldehydes, formaldehyde was associated with respiratory and general symptoms, acrolein with respiratory symptoms, propionaldehyde with respiratory, general, and heart symptoms, and hexanal with general SBS. Ozone was associated with almost all symptom groups.