Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
gators are poorly prepared to appropriately navigate the political tempest
(or its potential) that characterizes many problem building situations.
Most problem building investigations are conducted in response to com-
plaints from occupants who have no control over their environment. When
one or more occupants have complaints that they believe are associated with
the building, they must first inform, and then attempt to convince, building
management that a problem exists so that managers/owners take appropri-
ate action to resolve complaints.
It is common for managers/owners to be skeptical of the fact that symp-
toms/health problems may be due to contaminants in the building environ-
ment. This skepticism is based on a variety of factors, including: (1) the
preponderance of complainants are female employees, (2) building managers
themselves do not perceive that any air quality/indoor environment prob-
lem exists, (3) building managers/owners often view the problem in political
terms and thus hope that with time it will go away, and (4) building man-
agers/owners have no technical understanding of the issues and are uncer-
tain how to proceed. The political temperature may rise as a disbelieving
building management fails to respond to occupant concerns and may be
aggravated by occupant perceptions of management indifference or hostility.
Such political differences between occupant complainants and building man-
agers/owners are unfortunately very common, if not the norm.
The problem building investigation itself has its genesis in the dynamics
of human behavior. It may have come about as a result of a genuine man-
agement/owner concern for the health and welfare of occupants or it may
have originated from a desire by managers/owners to mollify occupants by
having an investigation conducted. In the latter case, managers/owners see
the problem primarily as a political problem rather than the technical prob-
lem with the building environment that it may actually be. The political
dimensions of the problem are usually unknown to investigators prior to
the conduct of the investigation. In many cases, building managers/owners
prefer that there be little or no contact between investigators and occupants
to minimize what they perceive as political problems that may result.
It is, nevertheless, critical to the successful conduct of an investigation
that occupants be interviewed or surveyed in order to obtain information on
symptoms and potential exposure patterns that are vital to correctly diag-
nosing and resolving IAQ/IE problems. Occupant interviews in themselves
serve an important political (public relations) function. Occupants get to tell
“their story” to a neutral or sympathetic third-party technical expert who is
the manager's/owner's representative. Such interactions convey a sense that
someone cares, a sense that is essential in solving the political dimensions of
a problem. Occupant confidence in the performance of the investigator is
vital to the successful resolution of building environment problems.
The investigator must educate both occupants and building manage-
ment as to what constitutes a building/working environment problem and
what does not (for the latter, e.g., reported cancer clusters involving very
disparate cancer types and organ systems). The investigator must educate
