Study: In three quarters of public buildings, the environment is unhealthy

Prague - Unhealthy environments are present in three quarters of public buildings in the Czech Republic, such as schools, offices, healthcare facilities, or nursing homes. This is the so-called sick building syndrome, which is most often related to indoor air quality. The most problematic are newly constructed or renovated buildings, especially open-plan offices. This is indicated by a study from the State Environmental Fund, which is available to ČTK.

"Sick building syndrome describes nonspecific health issues of individuals in buildings. The issues have no obvious causes, but they seem to be related to the building, as they disappear after leaving it. They can occur in all types of new and renovated buildings, with modern office buildings being a significant source," stated Zuzana Mathauserová from the State Health Institute.

According to the study, the most common problem is the effort to achieve maximum thermal insulation of the building. Ultimately, this limits the possibility of sufficient fresh air supply, which is particularly noticeable in winter. "This is related to overall fatigue and the mental state of employees during this period. During winter, they spend more time indoors than outdoors, there is less ventilation, the air tends to be drier, and it gets dark earlier. A typical example of problematic buildings is the recently popular open-space offices," added Marcela Skřehotová from the Institute of Safety and Health Protection.

According to Mathauserová, people in such flawed offices most often complain about the artificially created environment, as they are accustomed to changing conditions throughout the day. "They also react to the elimination of natural electrical properties of conditioned air, which is related to the very frequent complaint about low oxygen levels and stale air associated with insufficient ventilation of the space. A partial solution to air problems may be humidifiers installed in air conditioning systems; however, due to relatively high costs, many of them are lacking," Mathauserová added.

Other factors contributing to sick building syndrome include insufficient light, mold, fungi, or dust mites, as well as volatile organic compounds.