Indoor Carbon Dioxide Concentrations and Sick Building Syndrome Symptoms in the Base Study Revisited: Analyses of the 100 Building Dataset

摘要

In previously published analyses of the 41-building 1994-1996 USEPA Building Assessment Survey and Evaluation (BASE) dataset, higher workday time-averaged indoor minus outdoor CO2 concentrations (dCO2) were associated with increased prevalence of certain mucous membrane and lower respiratory sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms, even at peak dCO2 concentrations below 1,000 ppm. For this paper, similar analyses were performed using the larger 100-building 1994-1998 BASE dataset. Multivariate logistic regression analyses quantified the associations between dCO2 and the SBS symptoms, adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, presence of carpet in workspace, thermal exposure, relative humidity, and a marker for entrained automobile exhaust. Adjusted dCO2 prevalence odds ratios for sore throat and wheeze were 1.17 and 1.20 per 100-ppm increase in dCO2 (p <0.05), respectively. These new analyses generally support our prior findings. Regional differences in climate, building design, and operation may account for some of the differences observed in analyses of the two datasets.