October 10, 2003—A new topic page on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Web site provides a focused, organized guide to resources that will help building managers, employers, employees, and others to develop strategic, practical approaches to establishing or maintaining good Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in their workplaces. Almost 70 percent of the US work force—approximately 89 million persons—works in non-industrial, non-agricultural, indoor work settings, reports NIOSH. In the last 20 years, diseases and health complaints related to these indoor environments have received increasing attention. “Indoor environmental quality” refers to the interactions among many factors in indoor environments, including the quality of the air, the presence of chemical pollutants and microbiological pollutants such as mold, physical conditions such as temperature and humidity, ergonomic factors, and stressors from social/psychological or work organizational factors.
NIOSH explains that the most common health complaints attributed by building occupants to their indoor environments are generally of nonspecific symptoms, such as eye, nose, throat, and skin irritation, headache, and fatigue. Specific causal exposures or known diseases usually cannot be linked to these complaints. Available evidence relates these acute symptoms to multiple factors in the indoor environment.
NIOSH investigators have found IEQ problems caused by ventilation system deficiencies, overcrowding, offgassing from materials in the office and mechanical equipment, tobacco smoke, excessive moisture, microbiological contamination such as mold, and outside air pollutants.
