Talking Stick - November/December 2008 - 22

Facilities Is Your Building Sick? by Von Stange How indoor air quality is affected by a building’s mechanical systems. In 1976, the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, hosted an American Legion gathering to commemorate the United States Bicentennial. During that event, 34 people died and 221 people became ill from what was, at that time, an unknown disease. Subsequently named Legionnaire’s Disease after the event, the outbreak was caused by the presence of Legionella, a newly recognized genus of pathogenic bacteria, in the hotel’s cooling towers. This discovery has changed how facility managers handle heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems throughout the world. Today, while there are still outbreaks of Legionnaire’s Disease worldwide, concerns about indoor air quality have been focused more on factors such as mold and other allergens, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), tobacco smoke, and carbon monoxide/carbon dioxide. These are the culprits a facility manager thinks of whenever a work order is submitted in response to a student’s health concern. In a building with hundreds of students living in close proximity 24 hours a day, an efficient HVAC system is critical to the health of its occupants. Peter Thorne, a faculty member in the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and specialist in environmental toxicology, is very familiar with the complexities of sick building syndrome. He explains that the major diagnostic problem is making sense of people’s symptoms, which are similar to those shown during influenza season: “You can’t tell anything from one case, but when it happens to a bunch of people, and when they leave and symptoms are relieved, that is a sign of a potentially sick building.” The industry standard in the United States for what is considered a sick building is that 20 percent of the building’s population complain about the building environment. Cure: Adequate and Appropriate Ventilation During the campus construction era of the 1950s and 1960s, buildings were generally constructed without air conditioning. Those buildings breathe using windows, cracks under doors, and venting in restrooms. Thorne states that, in 1973, in response to rising energy costs, builders began to reduce natural ventilation to make buildings tighter: “Many buildings were built with windows that weren’t meant to be opened.” With less natural ventilation, buildings had to rely on HVAC systems for effective air exchange. This dependence on HVAC systems makes it crucial to select one that works well. Amy Infelt, managing principal of Design Engineers in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with over 20 years of experience in HVAC systems, considers a number of factors when identifying attributes of a top performing system. Flexibility is an important consideration. Many buildings have mixed uses, perhaps containing Diagnosis: Sick Building Syndrome Sick building syndrome is a condition in which occupants suffer health problems that cannot be identified or explained but appear to be related to working or living in a specific building. Complaints can range from headaches, coughs, and nausea to dizziness, fatigue, and irritability. Such problems may be caused by a building being used in a way that is inconsistent with its intended use or by activities or construction in the building that create poor indoor air quality. 22 Talking Stick

Talking Stick - November/December 2008

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