Prevalence of sick building syndrome among employees in a textile manufactory and evaluation of indoor air quality

Introduction and aim: Although the indoor air quality and the factors related to the building are important in terms of occupational health, they can also trigger problems affecting public health. Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), one of the most important of these problems, affects the living standards of employees and causes significant losses of workforce. This research was carried out in order to evaluate the indoor air quality in the textile manufacturing sector and to investigate whether the employees have SBS. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in a textile factory that has four floors operating in an industrially dense district of Istanbul, applying a questionnaire form by interviewing all employees face-to-face and measuring the indoor air quality parameters in the working environment such as carbon dioxide (CO2), PM2.5 dust particles, temperature, relative humidity, noise and illumination levels. Findings: Temperature, relative humidity, noise and illumination measurements were within normal limits. PM2.5 dust particle levels were above the limit value of 25 μg/m3 in all four floors of the studied building. The CO2 measurement averages of all floors in the building and the general CO2 average of the building were found above the TSE's (The Institute of Turkish Standarts) limit value of 800 ppm. Although there were some statistically significant differences of CO2 measurements between the floors of the building, no statistically significant relationship was found with the floors where people work and the frequency of SBS. The levels of PM2.5 measurements in the floors of the building were found at similar values. The five most common symptoms seen in the employees are respectively: tenseness and nervousness (62.1%); headache (59.7%); general muscle-joint pain (45.2%); cough, wheezing (44.4%); and feeling sad (38.7%). Results: The frequency of SBS in the participants was determined as 22.6%. SBS frequency was found statistically significantly higher on those who find the equipment they used during work uncomfortable, those who think that they have a workplace-related illness, those who only have complaints during the winter season, those who experience back pain. CO2 and PM2.5 dust particle levels which are found in many studies in the literature as factors that increase the risk of SBS development were also found to be high in our study.