Whatever happened to sick building syndrome?

Health and wellbeing remain important issues for every company

Remember sick building syndrome (SBS)? The medical condition where people in a building suffer from symptoms of illness or feel unwell for no apparent reason? If you’re relatively new to the health and safety profession, you might not.

First identified in the 1970s, sick building syndrome involves symptoms which increase in severity with the time people spend in the building, symptoms that improve or disappear when they are away from it.

HSE report and guidance

As SBS gained notoriety (and column inches) in the 1990s, the HSE published a research report on the subject in 1992, followed by its first published guidance in 1995. The most recent update to their publication HSG132, ‘How to deal with sick building syndrome’, was in 2000.

So, what is sick building syndrome?

A collection of symptoms are listed on the NHS SBS webpage (last updated in 2017) including headaches, blocked or runny nose, itchy skin, sore eyes, rashes, tiredness and difficulty concentrating.

This is a familiar group of symptoms that can arise from any number of conditions: those of you who are hay fever sufferers may recognise a few off that list!

Indeed, the HSE begins its guidance by saying, “almost everyone occasionally feels unwell because they are suffering from one or more common symptoms of discomfort such as headaches, dry throat or sore eyes”.

It goes on to say that “sick building syndrome is not a recognised illness. It is simply a convenient term to describe a particular phenomenon and cannot be diagnosed precisely”.

So, all in all a bit of a mystery. Has our phenomenon, and the ill health that accompanies it disappeared… gone the way, perhaps, of the Y2K IT bug and clothing store C&A (apologies to the younger readers who may not recognise either – both ceased to exist after the year 2000)?

Does it still exist?

HSE lists the causes of SBS as a combination of chemical and/or biological contaminants, poor ventilation, excessively humid or dry air, electromagnetic radiation, poor lighting, poor acoustics, bad ergonomics and psychological factors such as excessive work stress, job dissatisfaction and poor interpersonal relationships.

Given this list, it’s a fair guess that the causes of sick building syndrome are still around. So why aren’t we talking about it? Well, we probably still are. We’re just calling it something different…

Organisations such as the Building Research Establishment (BRE), The World Health Organisation and other industry bodies use the term Indoor Air Quality.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) refers to the air quality within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants.

Practical steps

So, what is the health and safety practitioner to do? Despite the term sick building syndrome falling out of favour, the guidance in HSG132 is still valid. Practical steps include:

• Investigating complaints promptly and systematically.
• Looking for the obvious.
• Checking the symptoms.
• Ask the staff what the problems are.
• Checking procedures and working practices.
• Using ill health data to identify clusters of similar types of ill health and sickness absence.
• Utilising staff surveys to gain insights into job satisfaction, workplace stress and dissatisfaction with working practices.

Regular complaints about temperature, humidity, lighting etc to helpdesks or maintenance teams can also suggests problems, most of which can be easily fixed.

If you get really stuck, the HSE suggests seeking professional help. Many businesses and organisations can help with surveying the different aspects of the internal environment, from noise, lighting and temperature and airflow surveys to more complex assessments of indoor air quality, pollutants and assessments of heating, ventilation and air conditions systems.

We can help you improve health and wellbeing

Here at System Concepts we’ve helped clients facing a range of health and wellbeing issues, including those which the HSE suggests can contribute to sick building syndrome. Examples of our work include: conducting workplace environmental surveys; workplace design appraisals; stress and satisfaction survey design and review; and ergonomic reviews of workplaces, work routines and work equipment.