Eulalee Thompson
Are you living or working in a 'sick' building? Answer 'yes' if you and other occupants suffer acute discomfort when time is spent in the building or in a particular room or area of the building.
Leave the building, you feel fine; enter the building, all kinds of strange symptoms show up out of the blue — fatigue, itchiness, dry skin, headache, dizziness, irritated eye, nose or throat and even nausea. No hocus-pocus here, it's all about the 'sick building syndrome' and the experts here say that more Jamaicans are complaining about 'sick' office space.
Fundamental principle
"The recommendation of fresh air for occupied space is 30 cubic foot per minute per person, that is, the supply of fresh air in the space and that is a fundamental principle of building design to take care of perfume, body odour and so on," said Norbert Campbell, programme coordinator for the occupational, environmental safety and health programme, based at the Chemistry Department of the University of the West Indies. So 'sick' buildings
suffer from inadequate fresh air supply to dilute
contaminants circulating in the indoor air. Without adequate fresh air supply, 'stale', polluted air circulates, over and over again, in these so-called 'tight' buildings. Not good news for the 'germ phobics'.
Carbon monoxide, lead from peeling paint, asbestos, sulphur dioxide from combustion, nitrogen dioxide and even a build up from cooking with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) were toxic substances identified by Mr. Campbell as indoor air pollutants.
Poor air supply
Other sources of indoor air pollution include poor ambient (outdoor) air supply coming indoor, building material, furnishings, computers, photocopying equipment, formaldehyde used in laying carpets, dry wall/particle board, household products like air fresheners, household cleaning solvents, tobacco smoking, heaters, paint strippers, pesticides and even a malfunctioning stove.
"We use carbon dioxide as a measure for the build up (of pollutants)... Carbon dioxide should not get beyond 800 part per million in the office space. Above 800 and studies show that people start to have problems," said Mr. Campbell. "It shows up in the inadequacy of fresh air, once you deliver the standard of fresh air (that is, 30 cubic foot per minute per person) you shouldn't have problems."
