Nasal histamine reactivity among adolescents in a remediated moisture-damaged school - a longitudinal study

This paper sums up a longitudinal study carried out on a group of students and teachers in a remediated moisture-damaged school. Registration of subjective data (questionnaires) and objective data (nasal histamine reactivity) has been made. Results and discussion are presented.

Surface dust contamination and perceived indoor environment in office buildings

The aim of that study was to test the impact of cleaning on indoor environement quality. Surface dust measurements were made on samples taken from office rooms before and after cleaning during the heating period of the buildings. Before the sampling, the occupants completed a questionnaire survey. The data were analyzed then discussed.

Estimating effects of moisture damage repairs on students' health - long-term intervention study

After the moisture damage repairs, a health symptom questionnaire study was repeated 1 year, 3 years and 5 years on 245 upper secondary and high school students. The data were analyzed. The results indicate that no new cases of symptomatic students occured : in that sense the repairs succeeded.

Indoor air quality in classrooms : field campaign by questionnaires and measurements

A research project aimed at investigating IAQ and thermal, acoustic and visual comfort was carried out in Italian high school and university classrooms. The investigations were performed through field campaigns during regular lesson periods consisting of subjective surveys and measurements. This work focuses in analysing the results from the IAQ investigations at four high schools of Provincia di Torino during the heating period.

Field investigation of indoor air quality in various chinese residential buildings

In recent years, the housing market in China has expanded tremendously due to economic development. Building envelopes have become more and more airtight because of improvements in building technology and concerns on energy conservation. But a lack of knowledge on domestic ventilation performance and difficulties in achieving suitable standards have led to more and more complaints from occupants, and reported cases of building related illness (BRI).

Thermal comfort and adaptation in semi-outdoor environments

Designing semi-outdoor environments such as atria or open-style cafes is a popular technique in modern architecture to provide occupants with natural outdoor elements in an artificialenvironment. Occupants are likely to expect a thermal environment differing from the indoors, and thermal adaptation is expected to play a major role in achieving comfort.Seasonal field surveys were conducted in four semi-outdoor environments for short-term occupancy with different levels of environmental control. Observations were made on occupancy conditions and clothing adjustments.

Do people like to feel "neutral" ? Response to the ASHRAE scale of subjective warmth in relation to thermal preference, indoor and outdoor temperature

This analysis explores a discrepancy between neutral on the ASHRAE scale and prefer no change on a thermal preference scale. The data employed are from numerous field studies drawn from two large databases. Multivariate analysis showed that the ASHRAE scale vote depended not only on the recognized thermal variables but also on the outdoor temperature, while the thermal preference vote was relatively little influenced by outdoor temperature.

Sick building syndrome among office workers in Mauritius

A cross-sectional study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of sick buildingsyndrome (SBS) among the office workers in Mauritius. Data were collected through selfadministeredquestionnaires answered by 384 occupants in 25 randomly selected buildings. Awalk-through investigation and some indoor climate variables were also monitored. All datacollected were analysed using Epi-Info and SPSS softwares. P values less than 0.05 wereconsidered significant.Personal factors such as sex, allergy and active smoking were significantly related to SBSsymptoms.

Magnitude of the mould and moisture problem in Danish homes

The purpose of this study was to quantify the extent of moisture problems in Danish homes. Aquestionnaire-based survey was made and a representative sample of 3800 Danes older than15 years responded. Main results are that 17.6% of the people have had moisture damages intheir dwelling during the last 5 years and among those as much as 36.4% have not yetremedied the damages. A total of 17.7% have moisture or mould spots on their walls, ceilingsor floors.

Health in occupants of energy efficient new homes

A pilot questionnaire study was carried out on two groups: 128 occupants of new homes' (52 R-2000) on the one hand and 149 occupants of control homes on the other hand: both the groups were questionned to compare their general and respiratory health at occupancy and one year later. Symptom scores improved significantly over the year of occupancy for the occupants of energy efficient homes.

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