Development of new VOC exposure metrics and their relationship to 'Sick Building Syndrome' symptoms

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are suspected to contribute significantly to "Sick Building Syndrome" (SBS), a complex of subchronic symptoms that occurs during and in general decreases away from occupancy of the building in question. Prior attempts to link exposures to VOCs and symptom outcomes have not considered potencies; i.e., the level of response for a given dose, of these compounds. A new approach takes into account individual VOC potencies, as well as the highly correlated nature of the complex VOC mixtures found indoors. The new VOC metrics are statistically significant predictors of symptom outcomes from the California Healthy Buildings Study data. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis that a summary measure of the VOC mixture, other risk factors, and covariates for each worker will lead to better prediction of symptom outcome. VOC metrics based on animal irritancy measures and principal component analysis had the most influence in the prediction of eye, dermal, and nasal symptoms. After adjustment, a water-based paints and solvents source was found to be associated with dermal (OR = 2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.7) and eye (OR = 1.7, 95% CI 1.1-2.7) irritation. The more typical VOC exposure metrics used in prior analyses were not useful in symptom prediction in the adjusted model (total VOC (TVOC), or sum of individually identified VOCs (...