Sick building syndrome in an office building formerly used by a pharmaceutical company: A case study

In the past two decades; a group of health problems related to the indoor e nvironment - generally termed sick building syndrome (SBS)- has emerged. We present an investigation of SBS in employees of a ministry working in a na turally ventilated office building that formerly had been used by a pharmac eutical company. A preceding environmental monitoring had failed to identif y the cause(s) for the complaints. We conducted a questionnaire-based inves tigation and categorized the building sections and rooms according to their renovation status and their former use, respectively. The highest level of complaints was found among the employees working in rooms that in the past had been used for the production or storage of various pharmaceutical prod ucts suggesting that pharmaceutical odors may be a risk factor for SBS. Cli nical laboratory tests did not show any unusual results. We conclude that t he former use of a building for production and storage of pharmaceutical pr oducts should be considered as a possible risk factor for complaints about indoor air quality, e.g., when advising about or planning for renovations o f buildings formerly used for production, handling, or storing of chemicals .