Outdoor air pollution in relation to sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms among residents in Shanghai, China

• Published in: Energy and buildings Vol. 174; pp. 68 - 76
• Main Authors: Sun, Chanjuan, Zhang, Jialing, Guo, Yuchao, Fu, Qingyan, Liu, Wei, Pan, Jun, Huang, Yanmin, Zou, Zhijun, Huang, Chen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 01.09.2018; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Air pollution; Air quality; Case studies; Children; Environmental monitoring; Incidence; Indoor air pollution; Indoor environments; Nitrogen dioxide; NO2; Outdoor air pollution; Outdoor air quality; Particulate matter; PM10; Pollutants; Pollution; Pollution control; Pollution effects; Pollution monitoring; Quartiles; Regression analysis; Regression models; Residents; Risk analysis; Risk factors; Sick building syndrome; Skin; SO2; Sulfur; Sulfur dioxide; China; Shanghai China; NO2; PM10; Sick building syndrome; Outdoor air pollution; SO2
• ISSN: 0378-7788; 1872-6178
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.06.005

•The incidence of sick building syndrome among residents in urban area was higher than that in suburban area in Shanghai.•Exposure to the residential environment with high concentration of outdoor air pollutants is a risk factor for SBS symptoms.•NO2, SO2, PM10 and the weighted mixture of them were significantly in relation to part of the SBS symptoms. In order to investigate the relationship between outdoor air pollution and sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms, the CCHH (China, Children, Home, Health) group in Shanghai conducted a cross-sectional survey on the current incidence of SBS symptoms among residents in five districts of Shanghai during April 2011–April 2012. It also collected the related outdoor air pollutants data from Shanghai environmental monitoring center (SEMC), including nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 µm (PM10). The logistic regression models were used in this paper to study the associations between air pollutants and SBS symptoms. Results were found that the daily mean concentrations of NO2 and SO2 met standard requirement, but that of PM10 exceeded the limit values of the standard in China during this survey. The significant differences were found between the pollutants concentration in urban and suburban area. In addition, the incidences of three categories of SBS symptoms among residents were 79.1% for general symptoms (GS), 65.2% for mucous membrane symptoms (MS) and 35.7% for skin symptoms (SS), respectively. Multiple logistic regression analysis by two case studies illustrated that three outdoor air pollutants, both their concentration quartiles and equal increment, were all associated to and taken as the risk factors for SBS symptoms, for GS ORNO2 = 1.62 (1.18–2.22), MS OR NO2 = 1.58 (1.21–2.06) and SS OR PM10 = 1.21 (1.09–1.35). Furthermore, the new pollutants expressed as the mixtures of their combination were also significantly associated with part of the SBS symptoms. The synthetic air quality indexes of all surveyed residents were calculated as III-level, which represented mild pollution. Therefore, it would be an effective way to decrease the incidence of SBS symptoms in residence to reduce the outdoor air pollution and control the penetration from outdoor to indoor environment.