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Wiley InterScience

Indoor Air

Volume 10 Issue 4, Pages 246 - 257

Published Online: 24 Dec 2001

2007 The Authors Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Munksgaard

Published on behalf of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate

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Associations Between Indoor CO₂ Concentrations and Sick Building Syndrome Symptoms in U.S. Office Buildings: An Analysis of the 1994–1996 BASE Study Data

MICHAEL G.APTE*, WILLIAM J.FISK and JOAN M.DAISEY

^† Deceased, Indoor Environment Department, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley CA 94720, USA, Fax:+1 510 486 6658, e-mail: MGApte@lbl.gov, *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

KEYWORDS

Carbon dioxide • Dose-response • Sick building syndrome • Multivariate logistic regression • Office workers • Ventilation

Abstract

Abstract 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 (CO₂) 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 CO₂ concentrations and SBS symptoms in occupants from a probability sample of 41 U.S. office buildings. Two CO₂ metrics were constructed: average workday indoor minus average outdoor CO₂ (dCO₂, range 6–418 ppm), and maximum indoor 1-h moving average CO₂ minus outdoor CO₂ concentrations (dCO₂MAX). MLR analyses quantified dCO₂/SBS symptom associations, adjusting for personal and environmental factors. A dose-response relationship (p<0.05) with odds ratios per 100 ppm dCO₂ ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 for sore throat, nose/sinus, tight chest, and wheezing was observed. The dCO₂MAX/SBS regression results were similar.

Practical Implications

Large increases in ventilation rate or improvements in ventilation effectiveness and/or indoor pollutant source control could potentially decrease the prevalence of selected symptoms by up to 70–85%

Received for review 16 February 2000. Accepted for publication 17 July 2000.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1034/j.1600-0668.2000.010004246.x About DOI