This thesis studied empirically the air-handling etiology of the nonspecific symptoms of the eyes, respiratory tract, skin, and central nervous system in office workers, often termed the sick building syndrome. The results of a four-period crossover trial in 75 office workers suggest that 70% air recirculation when accompanied by an adequate intake of outdoor air can be used without causing adverse effects. A cross-sectional study of 2678 workers in 41 randomly selected office buildings from Helsinki metropolitan area provides evidence that mechanical ventilation, air conditioning, steam and evaporative humidification and air recirculation are risk indicators of studied symptoms in the existing Finnish office building stock. The results also suggest that outdoor-air ventilation rates below the optimal (15-25 L/s per person) increase the risk of the sick building syndrome symptoms with such sources of pollutants as present in mechanically ventilated office buildings. / Theoretical examination reveals that the sick building syndrome is a figurative concept of everyday language, rather than a singular disease entity. A theoretical model, the Office Environment Model, is presented to explain relations between the office environment and health.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.29048 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Jaakkola, Jouni J. K. |
| Contributors | Miettinen, Olli S. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001468326, proquestno: NN08114, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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