Architecture Update: Blame pollutants, not sick buildings, says professor

JUST as we are getting used to the term 'sick building syndrome' for an office that causes its occupants to suffer symptoms from irritability to rashes and coughs, research claims there is no such thing.

Professor Pat O'Sullivan, of the Bartlett School of Architecture, London University, is carrying out a pounds 680,000 research programme, funded partly by the Department of Trade and Industry, to establish guidelines for designing and running healthy buildings.

Only specific areas of a building are likely to make you sick, he says. The question for architects and owners is: which bits, and why? Professor O'Sullivan blames the 24,000 pollutants known to be used in the building industry, including a variety of dusts produced during construction.