Building and Health: Mapping the Knowledge Development of Sick Building Syndrome

Mengmeng Wang,Xiaotong Guo,Lili Li,Hanliang Fu,Caixia Hou

doi:10.3390/buildings12030287

Mengmeng Wang, Xiaotong Guo + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12030287

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Journal: Buildings	Publication Date: Mar 2, 2022
Citations: 46	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology

Abstract

At present, with more and more attention paid to the impact of buildings on the health and well-being of occupants, sick building syndrome (SBS) has become a global concern. Since the introduction of SBS by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1983, thousands of research literatures have been published in this field. This paper systematically arranges knowledge development of SBS through bibliometric analysis, exploring the most influential countries, institutions, journals and scholars, as well as the main subject categories and keywords. Main path analysis (MPA) was used to list development trajectory under inheritance relationship of SBS knowledge, including symptom analysis, risk factors of SBS and the improved impact of ventilation on SBS and productivity. Furthermore, it is an emerging research trend to propose SBS solution in the building design stage.

Highlights

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been spending 80 to 90% of their time working and living indoors, which increases people’s concern about the impact of the building itself on human health, but promotes their pursuit of a healthy life [1,2]
The dramatic development of building technology has greatly improved energy-saving and comfort properties [4], but on the other hand it requires an increasing amount of synthetic building materials which can lead to indoor air pollution accumulation, and is harmful to human health [5]
Indoor air pollutants come from both building materials and indoor human activities, and a serious consequence is the outbreak of building sick syndrome (SBS) [6]

Summary

Introduction

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been spending 80 to 90% of their time working and living indoors, which increases people’s concern about the impact of the building itself on human health, but promotes their pursuit of a healthy life [1,2]. The dramatic development of building technology has greatly improved energy-saving and comfort properties [4], but on the other hand it requires an increasing amount of synthetic building materials which can lead to indoor air pollution accumulation, and is harmful to human health [5]. SBS was first introduced by WHO in 1983 and is defined as a collection of nonspecific symptoms for ill health caused by exposure to harmful agents associated with the occupancy of certain workplaces. The common symptoms of SBS include headache, mental fatigue, mucosal irritation, skin irritation, respiratory disorder, etc., which cause great harm to human productivity and health. One of the most important characteristics of SBS is the spatiotemporal association between disease and specific building; that is, symptoms will appear after working and staying in the building for a period of time but disappear spontaneously after leaving [8]

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