Search

ミニ特集 住環境における健康リスク要因とそのマネジメント, Recently, we have published a book containing evidence-based public health guidelines and a practical manual for the prevention of sick house syndrome. The manual is available through the homepage of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (http://www.mhlw.go.jp/file/06-Seisakujouhou-11130500-Shokuhinanzenbu/0000155147.pdf). It is an almost completely revised version of the 2009 version. The coauthors are 13 specialists in environmental epidemiology, exposure sciences, architecture, and risk communication. Since the 1970s, health problems caused by indoor chemicals, biological pollution, poor temperature control, humidity, and others in office buildings have been recognized as sick building syndrome (SBS) in Western countries, but in Japan it was not until the 1990s that people living in new or renovated homes started to describe a variety of nonspecific subjective symptoms such as eye, nose, and throat irritation, headache, and general fatigue. These symptoms resembled SBS and were designated "sick house syndrome (SHS)." To determine the strategy for prevention of SHS, we conducted a nationwide epidemiological study in six cities from 2003-2013 by randomly sampling 5,709 newly built houses. As a result 1,479 residents in 425 households agreed to environmental monitoring for indoor aldehydes and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). After adjustment for possible risk factors, some VOCs and formaldehyde were dose-dependently shown to be significant risk factors. We also studied the dampness of the houses, fungi, allergies, and others. This book is fully based on the scientific evidence collected through these studies and other newly obtained information, especially from the aspect of architectural engineering. In addition to SHS, we included chapters on recent information about "multi-chemical sensitivity."

The goal of the present study is to improve indoor air quality in a film storage and surrounding environment in the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo. This report addresses the estimation of emission sources of acetic acid in the film storage and adjacent preparation room,and presents an experiment to remove acetic acid from paper photographic enclosures kept as archives. To estimate emission sources of acetic acid, concentration and ventilation amount of acetic acid were measured in the film storage and the preparation room. It was found that air containing acetic acid flowed to the preparation room from the film storage and that a large volume of acetic acid had been emitted from cabinet 3 in the preparation room. There were aged films in the film storage and paper photographic enclosures which had absorbed acetic acid in this cabinet. Consequently, it was considered that acetic acid concentration of the preparation room was high. Removing the paper photographic enclosures from the preparation room would be the best way to reduce acetic acid. However, they should be kept as archives since they contain much information about the films. Therefore, seasoning of the enclosures wasattempted. As a result, their acetic acid emission rate was decreased in the first 35 days of seasoning. Furthermore, A-D strips were used to check the removal of acetic acid from the enclosures. The color of the A-D strips was changed in accordance with acetic acid concentration of the samples. This result was consistent with the trend of emission rate decay shown by emission test. Thus A-D strips were beneficial in checking easily the removal of acetic acid from the paper photographic enclosures.