Evaluation of indoor air quality elements and its relation to employee health symptoms in government offices around the Federal Territory of Putrajaya

Decrease indoor air quality (IAQ) has a direct impact to occupational health problems in a building. Temperature, relative humidity, ventilation flow rate and odour are the aspects that being used to determine the impact of IAQ faced by office workers. This study was conducted to evaluate the elements of IAQ and analyze the occupational health symptoms associated with IAQ. The study was conducted through the feedback of 562 employees in nine governmental offices around the Federal Government Administrative Centre of Malaysia, Putrajaya through questionnaires prepared and data were analyzed using the descriptive analysis method. Prelimininary results of the descriptive analysis showed that 52.3 percent or more office workers have experienced the effects of IAQ imperfections. Next, the results of further analysis showed that 41.8 percent or more office workers have experienced the various symptoms of the illness while in office. Among the significant symptoms of illness experienced by office workers are sneezing, headache and stress at work. Meanwhile, 44.5 percent or more employees who suffer from symptoms of the disease while in office have recorvered when leaving office. This condition shows the imperfections of IAQ that at the same time poses health-related symptoms to office workers. Such a condition can be considered that the office of this study has a building illness or building-related illness syndrome. Therefore, improvement measures on IAQ elements need to be taken to overcome this problem.