Expository Study of Building Related health Issues: Need for Safety Measures

EXPOSITORY STUDY OF BUILDING RELATED HEALTH ISSUES: NEED

FOR SAFETY MEASURES

SAHEED O. AJAYI, LUKUMON O. OYEDELE, HAFIZ A. ALAKA, HAKEEM O. OWOLABI, MUHAMMADBILAL AND OLUGBENGA O. AKINADE

Bristol Enterprise, Research and Innovation Centre (BERIC), University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

Email Address:[email protected]

In: Okeil, M. (2014). Smart, sustainable and healthy city, proceedings of the First

International Conference of the CIB Middle East and North Africa Research Network (CIB-

MENA 2014), December 14 -16, 2014, pp. 521 – 532.

AbstractVarious physical, chemical and biological hazards that affect human health arise in the

built environment. There is need for more awareness by both the designers and building

occupants, so that necessary preventive measures would be incorporated in the design of

new builds, and proper remedies would be applied in case of dealing with existing ones.

Consequently, this paper identifies causative factors of building related health issues and

explores their likely health and safety impacts. It also evaluates the nature, efficiency and

effectiveness of mitigations placed on each of the likely hazards in the United Kingdom and

Australia, as case studies. Various design and construction techniques through which some

of the hazards could be mitigated, as well as the strategies which building occupants can

adopt in order to prevent, or in worst case scenario minimize, the effects of such hazards

are also evaluated. While the nations used as case study scenarios already have some

improvable legislative measures in tackling building health issues, it is expected that every

nation follow suit and provide legislative measures capable of preventing building related

health issues.

1.0. Introduction

One of the basic requirements of buildings is the provision of

healthy and comfortable living environment for human activities.

Larger percentage of our time is spent indoors, whether in form of

residence, offices, shopping malls or other types of building.

Therefore, buildings must provide adequate room space, floor area,

lighting, shelter, comfortable indoor climate and other facilities

required for the purpose it is built. It is as well expected to be

designed, constructed and managed in such a way as to prevent risks

to health of the occupants (Curwell et al, 1990) especially as “the

connection between health and the dwelling of the population is one

of the most important that exist” (Hood, 2005:A317 )

Meanwhile, thousands of diseases, deaths and ultimate damage to the

wider environment have been associated with building health and

safety hazards, due to poor design and construction techniques,

improper ventilation system as well as wrong materials and products

selection. Such building materials and health hazards include

hazardous materials of which asbestos is an example; radon, indoor

air pollution, contaminants and contaminated lands, heavy metals,

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and Nitrates, pest, pesticides,

and so on (Raw et al 2001).

Gaining more and more research interests among the building health

related problems is the ‘sick building syndrome’. It is a medical

condition whereby building occupants suffer from various symptoms

of sickness such as stuffy, itchy or running nose, dry throat and

skin, chest tightness, undue lethargy, headache, watering or itchy

eyes and so on within the buildings, with such conditions

disappearing and relieved when they are away from the buildings.

Although there are tense debates about their real causes, some

likely causes of such problems include, but not limited to, indoor

surface pollution, inadequate air exchange, poor lighting, noise,

low relative humidity and material emission (WHO, 1995).

Nonetheless, building codes has a long established antiquity

protecting health and safety in history of man, dated back to the

‘codes of Hummurabi’ during the Babylonian era (Prince, 1904).

Nevertheless, all over the world today, building regulations,

codes, acts and standards have become essential tools setting out

mitigation standards which every building design and construction

must meet in terms of design, construction and material use. This

is in order to improve the quality of environment, health and

safety, comfort and productivity of the occupants and protection of

the wider environment from global warming and climate change.

The current worldwide attention to building health issues could be

credited to the ‘Baubiologie’, the German institute of building

biology established as an independent and non-governmental body in

1983. The sole aim of the body is to promote a healthy,

ecologically and socially responsible living environment. Their ‘25

principles of building biology’ is at the fore-front of providing

various guidelines for healthy built environment and living

conditions. This has probably awakened other nations to negative

impacts which certain elements could have on building occupants and

building professionals.

As such, in order to shed more light on the building related health

issues, this paper identified source of hazard in the built

environment, evaluates their health impacts as well as legislative

provisions available in the UK and Australia, as case studies. This

is expected to be a wakeup call for developing nations in

understanding and tackling building related health issues. The

general approach taken in the paper involves description of each of

the phenomenon, evaluation of its health effects, and analysis of

mitigation placed on each of the hazards in the two countries. It

is then followed by description of design and construction

techniques for mitigating the hazard, and exposition on the

strategies with which the residual risks of the hazards could be

managed by building occupants.

2.0. MethodologyThe overall approach taken in this paper is a review of extant

literatures and various legislative measures. Different sources of

building related health impacts were identified across literatures,

their likely health hazards were then evaluated. The UK and

Australian building health provisions were then checked to analyse

legal provisions available for mitigating likely health impacts of

the materials or activities.

3.0. Likely Sources of Building Health IssuesDifferent threats to human health have been identified within the

built environment. This section evaluates the sources and health

impacts of the threat as well as legislative provision for

mitigating the threat in the UK and Australia.

3.1. ContaminantsContaminants are man-made and naturally occurring physical,

chemical, biological or radiological substances (normally absent in

the environment) which, in sufficient concentration, can adversely

affect human health through air, soil, water and food. The health

effects of contaminants depend on the type and nature of the

contaminant as well as the level of exposure (Wong, 2012). There

are several contaminants that could be found in the environment.

Radon, contaminated land, heavy metals, as examples of

contaminants, along with their effects and mitigations are

described in this section.

3.1.1 RadonRadon is a natural, odourless and colourless radioactive gas formed

from the radioactive decay of radium and uranium; usually occur in

some buildings due to outside air, water supply, building

materials. It also enter buildings as a result of its in-flow from

the ground under the building through ground water movement, cracks

in the ground, service entry points, then exacerbated and built up

by poor indoor ventilation (Curwell et al, 1990). Inhaling

radioactive decay products formed through decay of radon gas will

form some deposits in the lung; this will irradiate the lung tissue

with alpha particles and may ultimately result in lung cancer (Raw

et al, 2001).

In the United Kingdom, some areas such as Devon, Cornwall and some

parts of Derbyshire are known to have up to 1000bqm-3 with a

general average of 20bqm-3 (Raw et al, 2001; Miles et al, 1992). As

such, the UK building regulation through its empowerment of the

Building Research Establishment (BRE) Good Building Guides’ 25

Building and Radon (1996) provides necessary guides on protective

measures for new dwellings against radon gas. The Ionising

Radiation Regulation (1999) of the Health and safety Commission

(HSC) for preventing exposure in workplaces also spell out

mitigation strategies. In Australia, Radiation Protection and

Control (Ionising radiation) Regulation, 2000 and 2002 is being

used to prevent exposure to radiation in workplaces since radiation

level is generally low in Australian homes, about 11 bqm-3 with no

area having more than 200bqm-3 (Miles et al. 1992).

Design and construction techniques recommended for radon prone area

include concrete flooring with radon barrier across building

footprint with ventilated concrete flooring and sub-floor void that

could allow later introduction of radon extraction for high risk

Radon map of the United Kingdom.Source: Miles et al, 2007

Radon map of Australia.ARPANSA, 2011

area. Concrete flooring with only radon barrier is also recommended

for low risk area. Although it has no statutory force, Australian

Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has

provisions and guidelines similar to the United Kingdom BRE Guides

to reduce radon in existing buildings; such measures include soil

suction, sealing cracks and openings, house pressurization, Heat

Recovery Ventilator (HRV) and elimination of radon in water.

Introduction of these practices in radon prone areas would prevent

rising of radon gases into buildings.

3.1.2. Contaminated LandContaminated land is a land by virtue of sufficient quantity or

concentration it contained is likely to cause harm to man,

environment or materials used in construction (Curwell et al,

1990). Contaminated land is also defined as “Any land which appears to the local

authority in whose authority it is situated to be in such a condition, by reason of substances in, or

under land that significant harm is being caused or there is significant possibility of such harm

being caused” (Part IIA of the Environment Protection Act (1990, Section

78(A).

A land can be contaminated due to industrial processes such as

metal manufacturing, gas works or dockyard, landfill and

agricultural land uses or as a result of naturally occurring

contaminants (Raw et al, 2001). While all brownfield lands are not

contaminated, it is possible that a Greenfield land is

contaminated, due to contamination from adjacent land. Direct

ingestion of contaminated soil or dirt, consumption of vegetable

grown on it, inhalation of contaminated gaseous or particle, skin

contacts, odour as well as contamination of water supplies and

ground water pose health risk. Buildings on gas contaminated lands

are vulnerable due to the tendency of the gas entering the interior

through cracks and gaps in the floor. Methane as a contaminant may

also result in fire or explosion if allowed to accumulate to its

hazardous concentration.

Figure 3: How contaminated land gets into human body system

(Source: Adlington, 2012).

Figure 4: Process for managing contaminated land

Source: EA, 2011

Despite the fact that the former Department of Environment(DoE) has

an account of contaminated lands in the United Kingdom, the

building regulation under the approved document C requires a

through site investigation and preliminary risk assessment for all

sites. Where a site is found to contain contaminants of any kind,

remediation to reduce its mass, concentration, mobility, flux and

toxicity or its containment by encapsulating the contaminated

material has to be taken. The UK EA recommended procedure for

managing contaminated land is available in figure 4. Nonetheless,

whether building site is contaminated or not, the building

regulation through its empowerment of UK Environmental Protection

Act, (1990) supported by Contaminated Land (England) Regulation

(2000) has some building requirements. It recommend the use of

cover system, by providing sub-soil drainage to all water logged

site, and ensuring that floors, walls and roofs of every building

are designed and constructed to prevent moisture, precipitation,

interstitial and surface condensation as well as water spillage

from sanitary fixing. These will reduce exposure, break the linkage

between the contaminants and receptor, improve geotechnical

properties and sustain vegetation.

Similarly in Australia, the Environmental Protection Authority

(EPA) through the use of Environmental Protection Act, (1993) and

National Environment Protection (Assessment of Site Contamination)

Measure (NEPM, 1999) provides guidelines for mitigating health

hazards that may be due to contaminated land in a similar way to

that of the United Kingdom. Remediation activities are expected to

follow the guidelines as the EPA advises the Planning Authority who

grants or denies building approval.

3.1.3. Heavy metalsHeavy metals are the members of ill-defined subset of some chemical

substance that portray properties of metals, usually described

based on various properties ranging from density, atomic weight,

atomic and chemical properties to their toxicity. Commonly known

heavy metals in buildings are Arsenic, Chromium and Cadmium which

are either on their own, attach to air particles(particulates), as

contaminants in air and water, or as constituents of other

materials such as paints, preservatives and so on (Jarup, 2003).

Serious toxic effects that can be caused by heavy metals include

dermatitis, ulceration and carcinogen due to exposure to Chromium;

lungs, bladder and skin cancer, reproductive and neurological

problems associated with exposure to Arsenic; kidney and bone

defects as a result of exposure to Cadmium (Curwell et al, 1990).

The UK building regulation approved document C requires the need

for prevention of occupants’ health from risk due to contaminants

of any kind, by avoiding the use of materials that can be a source

of contamination, and where it has been used, to reduce the

residual risk. Part F of the building regulation also requires the

use of extracts to exclude air pollution from indoor environments.

3.2 Air Quality and Indoor EnvironmentA healthy indoor environment is not only the one with absence of

contaminants; it involves all aspects of the indoor environment

such as indoor air quality, hygroscopic condition, acoustic

condition and so on. Since much of our time is spent indoors, a

designer must properly address all factors that can adversely

affect the health of the occupants at the conception stage of

design. To shed light on common causes as well as mitigation

measures of indoor related health risk, this section identifies

some causative agents and explores their design and legislative

solutions.

3.2.1. Ventilation and air qualityVentilation and adequate indoor air quality are necessary

parameters for achieving that condition of mind which expresses

satisfaction with its environment, in order to achieve a state of

complete mental, physical and social well-being within the built

environment. According to Curwell et al, (1990), there is indoor

air quality if contaminants are eliminated and there is adequate

air exchange rate through which stale air is replaced by fresh and

uncontaminated air from outside the space. Discomfort due to

inadequate ventilation has been traced to be similar to the

symptoms of sick building syndrome (Redlich et al, 1997; Joshi,

2008); hence, it results in lost productivity and absenteeism

(Finnegan et al. 1984; Ilozor et al. 2001).

3.2.2. Hygrothermal condition and moulds.Hygrothermal condition of a building deals with the movement of

heat and moisture through the building. This is usually determined

by indoor temperature, humidity and draught. Relative Humidity

above 70% encourages mould growth, while at below 30%, it is

associated with the drying of the mucous membranes of the upper

respiratory tract (Curwell et al, 1990). Cold environmental

conditions are associated with measured death due to heart attack,

respiratory illness and stroke (Raw et al, 2001). Occupants of

mouldy homes may experience respiratory infections, respiratory

symptoms, asthma and allergic rhinitis (WHO, 2009). Indoor

temperature below 12oC poses risk of cardiovascular and respiratory

health. Depending on activity level, indoor temperature between 16oC

and 20oC as well as air movement of below 0.2m/s usually produces no

discomfort (Raw et al, 2001). Hence, health may be affected by

inadequate ventilation, heating/cooling and moisture generation

within the building.

3.2.3. Fungi and AllergensInadequate ventilation and air flow accounts for fungi growth

usually on wall covering, building materials, carpets, shoes,

finishing and masonry in some buildings due to high relative

humidity of the indoor environment which directly influence the

water activity of a substrate. Apart from damage to building

materials, various health challenges such as Allergies Ι in form of

asthma or hay fever, and Allergies ΙΙ in form of chills, fever,

breathless and malaise have been traced to inhalation of fungi (Raw

et al, 2001).

3.2.4. Air tightnessThe desire to save energy consumption in buildings has recently led

to the concept of “air tightness” which helps to retain warm indoor

environmental condition, prevent unpleasant draught, increase

energy efficiency, exclude unnecessary outdoor environmental

condition and give greater thermal comfort. The UK building

regulation, through approved document L1, now requires air

tightness for all dwellings in order to avoid air leakage and

enhance thermal performance of buildings.

However, air tightness is not without its health challenges; when

there is insufficient air exchange in air-tight buildings, it would

lead to high level of CO2 which usually results in higher levels of

home dust, other biological air borne particles and release of VOC

from indoor paints, furniture and cleaning agents. All these may

lead to respiratory problems and headache).

3.2.5. Mitigation strategies for Indoor air related health

issuesIn the United Kingdom, the building regulation requires all

buildings to have ventilation system capable of preventing

accumulation of moisture. Absence of adequate ventilation could

otherwise lead to mould growth and pollutant originating from

within the building which could cause health hazards to people.

Supply of outdoor air to disperse stale air through mechanical or

natural means is also required of all buildings by the part F of

the building regulation. Likewise in Australia, the building code

requires provision of operable windows of not less 5% of the floor

area, or mechanical ventilation with recommendation of 15l/p/s for

conference room and 10l/p/s for other buildings. That of UK ranges

from 6l/p/s for normal rooms to 60l/p/s for kitchens. Irrespective

of the differences in the requirements, both the UK building

regulation and Australian building codes provides adequate

regulation for ensuring indoor air quality and ventilation.

4.0. ConclusionThis paper points out to the enormity of likely hazard from

building materials, design and construction, servicing style,

management problems. It buttress the need for continuous research

efforts towards understanding and mitigating likely health impacts

of building environment, especially with respect to new materials

and building techniques. This would ensure adequate information,

education and training for designers, contractors, materials

manufacturers and potential building owners about what and how to

prevent the hazards.

Meanwhile, governments and international community have a vital

role to play in protecting health of their citizenry and prevent

global disaster. As a case study, this paper shows that both the

United Kingdom and Australian government have certain improvable

legal provisions and guidelines protecting health of their

citizenry. However, there is still need for a more central effort

and more users’ participation in amendment and enforcement of the

building and health legislation in the countries.

Similarly, while some other nations have taken efforts in

implementing various fiscal and legislative provisions towards

preventing health problems associated with built environments, most

developing nations are largely left behind. It is expected that

apart from building legislation, which sets out planning

requirements, health and safety of citizenry should be considered

in all building acts and standard. This would ensure that

preventive measures are taken rather than curing likely health

issues.

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