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A study of indoor carbon dioxide levels and sick leave among office workers

BACKGROUND: A previous observational study detected a strong positive relationship between sick leave absences and carbon dioxide (CO(2)) concentrations in office buildings in the Boston area. The authors speculated that the observed association was due to a causal effect associated with low dilutio...

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Autores principales: Myatt, Theodore A, Staudenmayer, John, Adams, Kate, Walters, Michael, Rudnick, Stephen N, Milton, Donald K
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2002
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC149392/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12495450
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-1-3
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author Myatt, Theodore A
Staudenmayer, John
Adams, Kate
Walters, Michael
Rudnick, Stephen N
Milton, Donald K
author_facet Myatt, Theodore A
Staudenmayer, John
Adams, Kate
Walters, Michael
Rudnick, Stephen N
Milton, Donald K
author_sort Myatt, Theodore A
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: A previous observational study detected a strong positive relationship between sick leave absences and carbon dioxide (CO(2)) concentrations in office buildings in the Boston area. The authors speculated that the observed association was due to a causal effect associated with low dilution ventilation, perhaps increased airborne transmission of respiratory infections. This study was undertaken to explore this association. METHODS: We conducted an intervention study of indoor CO(2) levels and sick leave among hourly office workers employed by a large corporation. Outdoor air supply rates were adjusted periodically to increase the range of CO(2) concentrations. We recorded indoor CO(2) concentrations every 10 minutes and calculated a CO(2) concentration differential as a measure of outdoor air supply per person by subtracting the 1–3 a.m. average CO(2) concentration from the same-day 9 a.m. – 5 a.m. average concentration. The metric of CO(2) differential was used as a surrogate for the concentration of exhaled breath and for potential exposure to human source airborne respiratory pathogens. RESULTS: The weekly mean, workday, CO(2) concentration differential ranged from 37 to 250 ppm with a peak CO(2) concentration above background of 312 ppm as compared with the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommended maximum differential of 700 ppm. We determined the frequency of sick leave among 294 hourly workers scheduled to work approximately 49,804.2 days in the study areas using company records. We found no association between sick leave and CO(2) differential CONCLUSIONS: The CO(2) differential was in the range of very low values, as compared with the ASHRAE recommended maximum differential of 700 ppm. Although no effect was found, this study was unable to test whether higher CO(2) differentials may be associated with increased sick leave.
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spelling pubmed-1493922003-02-25 A study of indoor carbon dioxide levels and sick leave among office workers Myatt, Theodore A Staudenmayer, John Adams, Kate Walters, Michael Rudnick, Stephen N Milton, Donald K Environ Health Research BACKGROUND: A previous observational study detected a strong positive relationship between sick leave absences and carbon dioxide (CO(2)) concentrations in office buildings in the Boston area. The authors speculated that the observed association was due to a causal effect associated with low dilution ventilation, perhaps increased airborne transmission of respiratory infections. This study was undertaken to explore this association. METHODS: We conducted an intervention study of indoor CO(2) levels and sick leave among hourly office workers employed by a large corporation. Outdoor air supply rates were adjusted periodically to increase the range of CO(2) concentrations. We recorded indoor CO(2) concentrations every 10 minutes and calculated a CO(2) concentration differential as a measure of outdoor air supply per person by subtracting the 1–3 a.m. average CO(2) concentration from the same-day 9 a.m. – 5 a.m. average concentration. The metric of CO(2) differential was used as a surrogate for the concentration of exhaled breath and for potential exposure to human source airborne respiratory pathogens. RESULTS: The weekly mean, workday, CO(2) concentration differential ranged from 37 to 250 ppm with a peak CO(2) concentration above background of 312 ppm as compared with the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommended maximum differential of 700 ppm. We determined the frequency of sick leave among 294 hourly workers scheduled to work approximately 49,804.2 days in the study areas using company records. We found no association between sick leave and CO(2) differential CONCLUSIONS: The CO(2) differential was in the range of very low values, as compared with the ASHRAE recommended maximum differential of 700 ppm. Although no effect was found, this study was unable to test whether higher CO(2) differentials may be associated with increased sick leave. BioMed Central 2002-10-22 /pmc/articles/PMC149392/ /pubmed/12495450 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-1-3 Text en Copyright © 2002 Myatt et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.
spellingShingle Research
Myatt, Theodore A
Staudenmayer, John
Adams, Kate
Walters, Michael
Rudnick, Stephen N
Milton, Donald K
A study of indoor carbon dioxide levels and sick leave among office workers
title A study of indoor carbon dioxide levels and sick leave among office workers
title_full A study of indoor carbon dioxide levels and sick leave among office workers
title_fullStr A study of indoor carbon dioxide levels and sick leave among office workers
title_full_unstemmed A study of indoor carbon dioxide levels and sick leave among office workers
title_short A study of indoor carbon dioxide levels and sick leave among office workers
title_sort study of indoor carbon dioxide levels and sick leave among office workers
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC149392/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12495450
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-1-3
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