Indoor Air Quality and Work Environment Study. Library of Congress, Madison Building. Volume 3. Association between Health and Comfort Concerns and Environmental Conditions

摘要

A systematic study was designed to assess the nature and spatial distribution of employee health symptoms and comfort concerns in the Madison Building of the Library of Congress (LOC), Washington, DC. This report presented the multivariate analyses of all the study results. The primary associations observed in all the gathered data both in consistency and magnitude, were observed between health symptoms and both the perception of thermal comfort and the perception of odors. Few associations were demonstrated between symptom occurrence and objective environmental measurements. No environmental contaminants were identified at levels above any relevant criteria or standards with the exception of one location at which an elevated level of fungi was detected. A variety of workstation risk factors were identified for symptoms associated with ergonomic stresses. These included uncomfortable chairs, hours working at video display terminals, and inadequate lighting. Several recommendations are made to improve building maintenance and ventilation, and reduce job stress.