ESTIMATES OF IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY AND HEALTH FROM BETTER INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS

The existing literature contains strong evidence that characteristics of buildings and indoor environments significantly influence rates of respiratory disease, allergy and asthma symptoms, sick building sympto ms, and worker performance. Theoretical considerations, and limited em pirical data, suggest that existing technologies and procedures can im prove indoor environments in a manner that significantly increases hea lth and productivity. At present, we can develop only crude estimates of the magnitude of productivity gains that may be obtained by providi ng better indoor environments; however, the projected gains are very l arge. For the U.S., we estimate potential annual savings and productiv ity gains of $6 billion to $19 billion from reduced respiratory diseas e; $1 billion to $4 billion from reduced allergies and asthma, $10 bil lion to $20 billion from reduced sick building syndrome symptoms, and $12 billion to $125 billion from direct improvements in worker perform ance that are unrelated to health. Sample calculations indicate that t he potential financial benefits of improving indoor environments excee d costs by a factor of 18 to 47. The policy implications of the findin gs are discussed and include a recommendation for additional research.