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Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a growing societal concern. Since the entire population is concerned by this issue, it turns out to be major for the proper functioning of our businesses. Today, nearly 80% of our time is spent inside different types of buildings: places of education or work, transport, shopping centers, housing, leisure areas, etc. Faced with this, it is important to remember that we are not all equal with regard to the buildings in which we have to evolve. Not everyone has the chance to work and live in a healthy place.

One of the criteria for detecting whether the place is considered healthy or unhealthy is the indoor air quality. This can be easily damaged by the substances present in the air and contributing to its pollution. According to the Indoor Air Quality Observatory (OQAI), the air can be up to five to ten times more polluted indoors than outdoors.

Air pollution is the cause of ailments of which a growing number of workers are complaining. The symptoms described are grouped together under the name of Sick Building Syndrome (SBM) . The particularity of this syndrome lies in its difficulty in being detected by the people who suffer from it, since they are faced with a great diversity of symptoms that differ from one person to another and do not seem to have any identified reasons. Knowledge on the subject has nevertheless evolved and allows the sick building syndrome to be recognized today as “a multiplicity of factors at the origin of various affections”, which have the particularity of appearing in the occupants of buildings. same building and whose symptoms decrease sharply or disappear when they move away from it.

What is sick building syndrome?

Even if it remains relatively unknown to the population, Sick Building Syndrome has imposed itself both in the field of environmental health and in that of occupational health, and has even become one of the most frequent (including the rise has been constant since the 1970s, according to La Presse Médicale).

In the 1970s, the WHO (World Health Organization) identified Sick Building Syndrome as “the manifestation of psychological and health problems directly associated with a built place” .

A more precise definition of SBM, given in 1983 by a group of WHO experts describes it as follows: “a combination of atypical symptoms including headache, fatigue, irritation of the eyes and nostrils, dryness of the skin, and disorders of concentration in people working in confined spaces.” Following the research that has been done on this syndrome, we now know that it affects the following parts of the human body: the central nervous system, the mucous membranes, the skin, as well as the respiratory system.

During the emergence of symptoms of SBM in the population, the scientific community favored the psychological track to explain the causes (overwork, negative work atmosphere, managerial influence, etc.), considering environmental studies as costly and useless. However, it is indeed thanks to these that the notion of “air pollution” has emerged, little by little, considered today as a major public health issue.

As discussed above, the symptoms associated with SBM differ from person to person and depend on the sensitivity of each individual’s immune system. For example, people with chronic asthma or allergies may be more sensitive to pollutants in the air and develop more severe symptoms than the rest of the population.

Symptoms fall into two categories, physical disorders and psychological disorders, and often occur in that order.

Physical disorders: dry cough, asthma, excessive fatigue, irritability, sore throat, difficulty breathing, chest tightness, nasal burning sensation, runny nose, sneezing, conjunctivitis, malaise, nausea, ENT problems, headache, dizziness , itching and rashes, body aches.

Psychological disorders: malaise, depression, anxiety, which can be created or reinforced by the perception of persistent discomfort linked to the appearance of multiple physical disorders.

If you or your co-workers notice these types of symptoms when you are inside a building and find that they go away when you are outside, you may be suffering from Sick Building Syndrome.

It should therefore be remembered that SBM is a set of atypical symptoms present in an individual, without clear pathological signs. It is a diagnosis of exclusion, doctors must therefore exclude any other potential pathology that could explain the symptoms, before ruling on Sick Building Syndrome.

Over the past thirty years, we have seen an increase in employees working in buildings and complaining of various ailments. Among these disturbances: fatigue, loss of concentration, respiratory problems, asthma, irritation of the mucous membranes (eyes, nose, throat) or skin irritations. This set of ailments is grouped under the English term “Sick building syndrome” or “Sick building syndrome”. According to the WHO, 30% of buildings in the world present this syndrome.

Symptoms underlying sick building syndrome are often caused by low concentrations of pollutants in the air of the workplace. These pollutants can be organic solvents emanating from paints, glues or other furniture components (carpets, chipboard). Or even bioaerosols such as micro-organisms, dust mites, animal hair, fungi developing in porous materials.

We must also be aware of the existence of other important forms of indoor pollution which constitute a real public health problem. This is the case, for example, of carcinogenic asbestos, the dust of which can be found in the air of the workplace following the crumbling (due to wear or maintenance work) of certain materials. Another source of illness is Legionella, a bacterium that thrives in standing water in poorly maintained air conditioning systems and can cause legionellosis, which can be fatal. We can also mention radon, a natural, odourless, colorless and radioactive gas. This gas naturally emanates from earth rocks (natural soil and building materials) and causes lung cancer.

However, fatigue, headaches, allergies or irritations are not always related only to the building. It is also necessary to take into account working conditions (including stress, professional and salary status) and psychosocial aspects (social climate, constraints, conflicts), as well as individual characteristics (predisposition to allergies, asthma, eczema), which may also partly cause these symptoms. This is why it is often difficult to establish a clear and definitive diagnosis.

But there are effective technical or organizational measures to combat sick building syndrome. Here are a few tips:

Improved air quality. Guaranteeing a healthy workspace for your employees begins with improving air quality. Several options are possible:

Partition off the area reserved for smokers. To protect non-smokers against the adverse effects of smoke on the body and against the inconvenience caused by passive smoke, it is important to provide a delimited and partitioned smoking area. In addition, it is essential to ensure sufficient air renewal in this smoking area.

Improve the ventilation of the premises. Ventilation is the process, natural or mechanical, which makes it possible to supply a room with fresh air and to evacuate the stale air. The more effective the ventilation (air change rate, purity of the air introduced), the lower the concentration of impurities in the air of the workplace.

Carry out regular maintenance (at least once a year) of the air conditioning systems, in order to clean and disinfect the systems and thus avoid contamination of the water by micro-organisms. The most frequent problems arise in June, when the cooling systems are restored to working order.

Replace a carpet with linoleum to fight against dust and allergenic dust mites. Indeed, rugs, carpets and curtains constitute an environment favorable to the accumulation of dust and thus to the proliferation of dust mites.

General work organization. In addition to the care taken with the infrastructure, the general organization of work offers several other interesting options:

Write clear procedures. “Work stress” is a factor clearly linked to the symptoms of sick building syndrome; the vagueness of roles, tasks and responsibilities is one cause. This is why the drafting of specifications or other clear work procedures can have a positive effect on the well-being of employees.

Rearrange workplaces. The analysis of workstations and the optimal layout of spaces, taking into account in particular the position of the body, the position of the computer screen in relation to the operator, the lighting, the type of furniture or the nature of the activities contributes to guaranteeing an appropriate working environment, which makes it possible to limit certain damage to health at work.

Thus, the elimination of chemical and biological agents polluting the air in the workplace is an essential step in ensuring the well-being of employees, but it is important not to neglect the organizational and psychosocial aspects. Sick building syndrome being a non-specific pathology, most of the time it is a matter of improving work situations as a whole.