VANCOUVER (Canadian OH&S News) -- WorkSafeBC has issued two orders to the University of British Columbia (UBC) following ongoing indoor air quality (IAQ) complaints inside a university building.

In mid-September, WorkSafeBC ordered UBC to ensure that temperature and humidity levels within the indoor work environment are maintained within acceptable comfort ranges, says WorkSafeBC spokeswoman Donna Freeman. The UBC was also required to notify the board, in writing, of the steps to be taken to correct this issue.

These two orders follow two previous orders, issued in January and last October, Freeman adds. The previous orders were issued to UBC Properties Trust - the development firm responsible for new construction for the university. The orders required the assurance “that indoor air quality is investigated when complaints are reported” and that UBC Properties Trust provides a report to WorkSafeBC regarding the IAQ investigation and corrective actions, if any, reveals a WorkSafeBC investigation report.

“There is a history of IAQ complaints in this building dating to early 2006, shortly after the building was occupied,” the report notes. “In dealing with these issues, the patience of UBC staff in the Strangway building has been taxed to the breaking point.”

The complaints relate to the third, fourth and fifth floors of the David Strangway building, which houses between 150 and 200 faculty from the university’s Department of Family Practice, explains David Adams, the department’s research co-ordinator. Adams says that the temperature on the south side of the building reaches about 35 degrees Celsius, due to a faulty heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. In addition, the exhaust flute from restaurants on the first floor is about 40 feet directly upwind of an air intake device for the three floors, he adds. The investigation report say that, as of this July, the concern was “being addressed.”

Adams says that workers in the David Strangway building are experiencing symptoms including exhaustion, fatigue, headaches, tiredness, lethargic feelings, migraine headaches and respiratory problems.

“Personally, I’m now experiencing regular dizzy spells to the point where I can’t stand up at a meeting in the building for more than two or three minutes before I have to sit down,” Adams says. “I’m visiting a doctor specifically about these concerns.”

Department head Dr Robert Woollard told COHSN that the “intolerable heat” is taking its toll on workers and he estimates that employees are missing an average of one day of work every two weeks.

Consulting firm identifies "significant problems"
KD Engineering, a Vancouver-based consulting firm hired to take a comprehensive look at the HVAC system, identified “significant problems” with the building’s HVAC system, the investigation report reveals, including elevated levels of carbon dioxide (greater than 650 ppm above ambient levels). WorkSafeBC reports that the KD Engineering study notes that “the operation of high intake, discharge and mixing dampers and their control set-points” may need to be reviewed and revised. However, the report concludes by saying that “it is difficult to directly deduce with any certainty whether ventilation rates are adequate from the observed ...carbon dioxide levels alone.”

As of this September, the investigating occupational health and safety officer and the university’s plant operations staff, which recently took over operation of the HVAC system from UBC Properties Trust, “share a concern that the existing HVAC system has no capacity to deal with weather-associated factors,” the report adds. There is also a concern that a recommendation from an IAQ consultant - involving the installation of solar film on window surfaces - has not taken priority.

“The first complaint went out in October 2006, it’s now October 2007 and we’re facing the same conditions, if not worse,” Adams says. “As one employee said, ‘We’re living in a plastic bag on our heads in an Easy-Bake Oven.”

Freeman says that WorkSafeBC officials continue to work with the UBC “on the problem, and it is ongoing.”
http://www.ohscanada.com/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=74707&issue=10092007
 
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