Effects of newly decorated and airconditioned office on the health of people

Liyan SUN; Yulan AN; Yuling HUANG

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

There are some poisonous and hazard materials released from decoration materials and office furniture that will deteriorate the air of office if the ventilation of air-condition system is not very good.

OBJECTIVE:

To investigate the effects of newly decorated air-condition office to human health.

DESIGN:

A retrospective observational comparative study taking the office staff in newly decorated air-conditioned environment as the subjects and the office staff in natural ventilation environment with same decoration as the controls. SETTINGSOccupational medicine department of a disease control and prevention center of a city.

PARTICIPANTS:

This study was conducted in the Department of Occupational Medicine of Dalian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention from April to May 2001.Inclusive criteriaoffice staff in a newly decorated and airconditioned telecommunication building of either sex;Exclusive criteriapeople with acute or chronic disease history.Twenty-three office staff working in the airconditioned office was chosen as the observational group,the ratio of male to female was 12 to 11,aged from 24 to 51 with the mean age of 33.1 years old,average length of service of 14.2 years and average working length in air-conditioned office of 6.8 months.Other 23 office staff was randomly selected from natural ventilation office in the same building with the same decoration condition,the ratio of male to female was 10 to 13,aged from 22 to 58 with mean age of 36 years old, average length of service of 16.7 years and working length in this office for 8.2 months.

INTERVENTIONS:

To monitor the volatile organic compounds,hazard substance and microclimate in the decorated office with air-conditioner and conduct investigation to the health status of staff. Subjective symptoms between staff in different offices.

RESULTS:

The concentration of formaldehyde and ammonia exceeded the national hygienic standards in both air-conditioner and naturally ventilation offices,in which formaldehyde exceeded 6.1 and 2.3 times respectively while ammonia exceeded 8.5 and 2.3 times respectively.The illumination,assessment index of positive and negative ions and total bacteria in office with air-conditioner were lower than those of natural ventilation office (P< 0.01).The symptoms manifested in staff working in air-conditioned office such as dizziness,headache,chest pain,dry eye,decreased vision and menoxenia were more distinct than control group(P< 0.01).Dry mouth and hair losing were also more popular in air-conditioned group(P< 0.05).

CONCLUSION:

More attention should be paid to choosing environmental friendly building and decoration materials and office furniture when decorating.It is very important to make sure the ventilation of air-conditioner is normal and there is enough air change flow.