Beating the office hazard blues.

• Author: Goldstein, Robert L.

NEARLY HALF the U.S. labor force--upwards of 50,000,000 people--works in office buildings. The office game is almost all mental, but the physical toll can be great. Emotional stress, so often the precursor to physical ailments, can grow in an office like mangroves in a swamp.

One's emotional circumstances, feelings of job satisfaction or security, and self-esteem can create considerable stress. In an office, there also are supervisors and co-workers to deal with. Maintaining a psychologically healthy atmosphere can be difficult.

Considering that most office employees spend nearly one-third of their lives at work, it makes sense that they experience so many debilitating injuries and disorders, stress-related or not. Modern buildings and high-tech office equipment have been applauded widely for their functional design, but their full impact on their tenants' or users' health has yet to be determined fully.

While certainly less dangerous than most agricultural, construction, manufacturing, or mining work, office jobs can wreak havoc. There appear to be, according to occupational health experts, four primary sources of the most frequent physical problems in offices--air, chairs, lights, and computers.

Air quality is a growing area of concern because of the steadily increasing number of sealed structures. The so-called "tight building syndrome" (some call it the "stuffy building syndrome") has been used to describe a range of complaints that encompass eye, nose, throat, and skin irritation, headache, fatigue, dizziness, difficulty in concentration, and shortness of breath. In one study of office worker health, air quality was found to be correlated strongly not only to satisfaction with the office environment, but also to symptoms of upper respiratory tract distress.

Although it often is difficult to establish direct cause-and-effect relationships between office conditions and such illnesses, some serious ailments, such as Legionnaires disease, can be linked to microorganisms borne in air conditioning or ventilation systems. Similarly, chemicals in carpets, drapes, and copying machines; tobacco smoke; and building materials all may induce physical reactions or illnesses.

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), energy conservation measures in buildings, together with the use of new products and materials and inattention to ventilation maintenance, often are at the root of tight/stuffy building problems. In...