Do you know if you are living or working in a sick building? Just as humans get sick, buildings are able to get sick also. This phenomena is know as Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). SBS, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a term ‘used to describe situations in which building occupants experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in the building’ (n.p.). What makes a sick building a sick building? Derived from the EPA,...

Damp odours, musty odours. Sometimes it feels like buildings are just meant to have that odour because it is so commonplace. We sometimes associate basements with “naturally” having a musty odour. Entering a home that has been shut for a while, the assumption is that that odour is on account of the “stale air.” But what if there is more to it than just being a nuisance odour? That thing that you are smelling is called mVOCs (Microbial Volatile Organic Compounds). According to the US...

The dominant barometer of good air quality is a physically clean space that “smells nice”. Once these bases have been covered, it is perceived that everything is okay in a building. Arising symptomology of poor indoor air quality like headaches or chest pains are characterized then as “weird” and deemed normal, pushed to the side as building occupants engage in daily tasks. It is always assumed that rudimentary maintenance schedules have been put in place for HVAC systems, hence, there should...