SICK-BUILDING PROGNOSIS: NOT GOOD

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993                   TAG: 9303250019
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Short
SICK-BUILDING PROGNOSIS: NOT GOOD
A breath of fresh air appears to be no cure for "sick-building syndrome."
Experts have long recommended that building engineers add more outside air to heating and air-conditioning systems to combat this common problem. But a new study concludes there is no reason to think that helps.
Sick-building syndrome is a common complaint among people who work in modern office buildings. Victims suffer headaches, fatigue, trouble concentrating and irritation of skin and mucous membranes. These woes occur at work but clear up when people are away from the buildings.
According to one estimate, 10 million to 25 million people who work in 800,000 to 1.2 million U.S. commercial buildings have symptoms.
To test whether more outside air resolves the problem, researchers from McGill University in Montreal experimented with the air mix in four buildings where workers complained of the symptoms. They questioned 1,838 workers.
The results of the study, directed by Dr. Richard Menzies, were published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
Without telling the workers, the researchers adjusted the buildings' ventilation systems so they contained either 7 percent outside air or 32 percent.
The settings made no difference in the number of number of complaints. Fourteen percent of workers reported symptoms during increased ventilation, 14 percent during decreased ventilation and 39 percent during both settings.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB