Has it recently occurred to you that your employees aren’t performing very well or taking many sick days off? Is it that they work with more efficiency from home rather than when they are at the offices? Well, then it’s probably your office building that you must blame. Moreover, you must be worried as your entire office might be at risk of Sick Building Syndrome.
What is Sick Building Syndrome?
Sick Building Syndrome is a situation wherein a building poses a risk to its occupants by causing symptoms like headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, fever, chest pains, sore throat, skin rashes, eye sensitivity and irritation, loss of concentration, and a lot more. However, once the occupants are out of the building, they feel just fine.
The question is what causes this. Well, let’s see some of the major causes of the syndrome.
Causes of Sick Building Syndrome
When you talk about the causes of sick building syndrome, there’s no one reason, but many. It’s mainly due to unsanitary building conditions that lead to pathogens, microbes, and germs breeding within a facility. However, what gives rise to these unsanitary conditions are all the causes of sick building syndrome. So, let’s have a look at all these causes one by one.
Poor Ventilation System
The ventilation system in a building maintains a proper airflow inside of it. However, suppose the ventilation is not proper. In that case, impure air will not pass through and give a breeding area to bacteria, viruses, pathogens, and all kinds of harmful microorganisms, thereby affecting the indoor air quality and causing issues and discomfort to the occupants in the building.
Surface Contamination
Besides impure air quality due to poor ventilation system, the bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens will also stick to various surfaces in the building, both from the air as well as other sources such as from the foot traffic coming to the facility and people coming in contact with different surfaces. This kind of surface contamination is also a cause of sick building syndrome.
Inconsistent Use of the Building
Now, you may wonder how inconsistent use would lead to sick building syndrome. However, when a building or facility is left idle and unused for long periods, they start to get unsanitary due to biological factors and elements such as molds and algae forming on the walls and other bacteria and viruses starting to contaminate the building. So, if the building is restored without addressing these biological factors, it shall start to cause the sick building syndrome.
How to Combat Sick Building Syndrome?
Sick Building Syndrome, however, less known, is harmful and puts your office at a lot of risk, so much so that it can even put you out of business. So, you surely need a way to combat the issue. Well, here are some things that you must follow to make sure that your office is free from the risk of sick building syndrome.
Maintain Good Indoor Air Quality
Pathogens and microbes easily breed in impure air. So, one way to ensure that these harmful contaminants do not contaminate your building is to ensure that the indoor air quality is well maintained in your building.
This comes down to ensuring that your building has a well-maintained and proper ventilation system that will channel the flow of air in the entire facility. Additionally, it would be great to install air purification systems within your building and its HVAC systems.
With such measures, it will be much easier for you to maintain indoor air quality and ensure that the building is not exposed to contaminants.
Be Consistent With Cleaning and Sanitization Activities
With a cleaner environment, you can ensure that your building is safe and free from any risks of sick building syndrome. So, you need to be very consistent with the cleaning and sanitization activities in your facility.
With regular cleaning, disinfection, and sanitization, you can ensure that there’s not even a single trace of surface contamination. So, the pathogens shall not have an area to breed in your facility, and you shall be in a safer place with no risk whatsoever.
Ameristar Facility Solutions Can Help Your Facility
With everything said and mentioned, it’s clear that only a clean and sanitary environment can keep a building free from the risk of sick building syndrome. Ameristar Facility Solutions is available to provide all the help you need with its amazing team of experts dedicated to providing end-to-end commercial cleaning services. All you need to do is reach out in any of the following ways –
- Visit our website at: https://ameristarfacilitysolutions.com/
- Give us a call: (570)-675-5525
- Email us at: info@ameristarfacilitysolutions.com
Final Words
Having a safe environment at your office is necessary to keep up with your operations in their highest efficiency and productivity. Your employees must be able to trust the safety of their workplace. The only way to do that is to ensure sanitary conditions that will combat and prevent risks and problems like sick building syndrome.
With consistent cleaning, disinfection, and other measures elaborated in this article, you can ensure a safe, clean, and sanitary environment.
You can get in touch with Ameristar Facility Solutions if you need any help in achieving this kind of safe and healthy environment for your offices.