Going green: for the first green, soon-to-be-LEED-certified law school in the country, details matter - Facilities/Construction

University Business, June, 2003 by Jeff Morris

Frequently, it's difficult to establish a firm relationship between SBS symptoms and the indoor environment, though most complainants report relief soon after leaving the building. And, while it's important to note that complaints may result from other causes--illness contracted outside the building, acute sensitivity (allergies), task-related stress, or other psychosocial factors--the EPA says that studies show SBS symptoms may be caused or exacerbated by indoor air quality problems.

Inadequate ventilation is thought to be a key cause of SBS. According to the EPA, in the early- and mid-1900s, building ventilation standards recommended approximately 15 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of outside air for each building occupant (primarily to dilute and remove body odors!). As a result of the 1973 oil embargo, however, energy conservation measures called for a reduction in the amount of outdoor air provided for ventilation to 5 cfm per occupant.

"In the '70s, windows were essentially 'nailed shut,' preventing outside air from coming in," recalls Air Quality Sciences' Dr. Marilyn Black. She points out that new buildings have been tightly sealed ever since, to save on rising energy costs, and energy costs in older buildings were reduced by adding insulation, caulking, and weather-stripping to make windows airtight.

"They went overboard in making buildings too tight," comments architect Ron Fanning, of Fanning/Howey Associates. "To be frank, you're just recirculating a lot of garbage." Fanning notes that most Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors. "Pollutants are two to five times higher indoors than outside; and at those levels, the space is not really habitable. Side effects include an inability to perform at the proper level, and increased absenteeism."

RELATED ARTICLE: Thwarting SBS with green construction.

Green construction is not only environmentally friendly construction, it's an excellent means of thwarting Sick Building Syndrome, or SBS. And when it comes to SBS, college and university administrators face perhaps the most complex SBS challenge of all: Whereas most other facilities are limited to a specific type of building--for instance, an office structure, library, store, theater, or hotel--higher education campuses often comprise all of these building types and more, including laboratories. Campus construction, then, may provide a veritable smorgasbord of potential chemical and biological hazards for building inhabitants, say the experts.

"People involved in planning school facilities are increasingly concerned with avoiding sick building syndrome," says Thomas Kube, executive director of the facility planners organization, CEFPI, "especially as it's become more prevalent."

While biological agents (airborne bacteria, molds, pollen, and viruses) are a major contributing factor to SBS, the other main culprits are not biological, but chemical: Formaldehyde (found in as many as 3,000 different building products, including particleboard, fiberboard, and plywood in furniture and paneling; glues; and upholstery and drapery fabrics), secondhand cigarette smoke (less prevalent since widespread bans, but still a factor), volatile organic compounds released at room temperature as harmful gases (from some furniture, paint, adhesives, solvents, upholstery, draperies, carpet, spray cans, clothing, construction materials, cleaning compounds, deodorizers, copy machine toners, felt-tip markers/pens, and correction fluids). Even low-to-moderate levels of multiple VOCs may produce acute reactions.