Indoor Environmental Risk Factors for Occupant Symptoms in 100 U.S. Office Buildings: Summary of Three Analyses from the EPA BASE Study

Conference Proceedings

Mendell, Mark J, Quanhong Lei-Gomez, Myrna Cozen, Howard S Brightman, Michael G Apte, Christine A Erdmann, Gregory Brunner, John R Girman

This paper summarizes three analyses of data on building-related environmental factors and occupant symptoms collected from 100 representative large U.S. office buildings. Using multivariate logistic regression models, we found increased occupant symptoms associated with a number of building-related factors, including lower ventilation rates even at the current guideline levels, lack of scheduled cleaning for air-conditioning drain pans and cooling coils, poor condition of cooling coils, poorly maintained humidification systems, and lower outdoor air intake height. Some expected relationships were not found, and several findings were opposite of expected. Although requiring replication, these findings suggest preventive actions to reduce occupant symptoms in office buildings.

Healthy Buildings 2006 Conference

111

2006

Indoor Environment Group, Sustainable Energy Department, Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division

EAEI Healthy & Efficient Buildings