Pent-up office workers dissatisfied with not enough money and free time now have another bugbear: good, clean air.

A recent survey of office workers found most of those polled believed they were working in unhealthy environments.

The complaints included not having enough ventilation, being exposed to bad odors and indoor climate controlled temperatures being either too hot or too cold.

The survey, conducted by www.1010job.com, a recruitment website, surveyed more than 1,400 office workers last month and found that more than 80 percent of respondents said the poor environment in their office had affected their health.

Some 46 percent of workers said their offices lacked good ventilation.

Liu Yuan, 29, who works at a foreign-funded company in the Beijing CBD area in Chaoyang District, spends most of his time in the office.

"The air quality in my office is stale but it is hard to find a window that can open," Liu said.

Like Liu, millions of office workers throughout the country are feeling the office walls closing in, and losing a grip on what it's like outside because of the sheer amount of hours they spend at work.

Many offices rely completely on artificial air systems for ventilation.

An office in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, uses electric fans for better ventilation during summer. A recent survey of office workers found most of those polled believed they were working in unhealthy environments.Zhang Heping

Some glass-walled office buildings don't even allow for the windows to open.

But even if they could, the air quality outside isn't that appealing anyway.

Song Guangsheng, director of the Indoor Environment Test Center under the China National Interior Decoration Association, said poorly planned indoor environments and a lack of ventilation are major reasons why office workers get sick, such as catching a cold.

"We need to arouse enough concerns to improve indoor air quality in offices where there are large numbers of people," Song told China Daily.

"The ventilations of centralized air-conditioning systems attracts dust, and is a breeding ground for mould fungus and acarid -- and need to be cleaned regularly, say every two or three years.

"The air-conditioning systems in some buildings have never been cleaned since they were installed 10 or 20 years ago."

The National Standardization Administration launched the cleaning code for ventilating and air-conditioning systems in 2003. However, the sanitation of air-conditioning systems in public places is still unsatisfactory.

In 2004, the Health Ministry ordered an overhaul of air-conditioning systems in about 1,000 public places such as hotels and large supermarkets in 60 cities across the country.

The ministry found that only 6 percent of air-conditioning systems met the national cleaning code.

More than 47 percent of the systems were heavily contaminated and 46 percent were moderately contaminated.

To tackle the problem, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Construction launched detailed operation and sanitation management rules in March last year.

The rules stipulated that certain components of public central air-conditioning systems be cleaned within regular timeframes.

Atmospheric cooling towers should be cleaned at least every six months, the filter screened once a year and the ventilation tubes should undergo sanitation assessment at least every two years.

However getting office buildings to fall into line was a problem.

"The office is a management blind area as the sanitation rules can only be enforced in 'public places'," Song said.

But according to the Labor Law, employers need to provide a "safe and healthy" environment for workers.

"If employees are not satisfied with their working environment, they should asked their boss to monitor the air quality in their office or complain to labor and social security departments," Song said.

Cleaning fees for the air-conditioning system of a 20-storey office building can be in the hundreds of thousands of yuan.

"The cleaning fee is too dear for the employers to accept," Tang Shuxin, an engineer with the Beijing Luran Indoor Environment Assessment Company, said.

"So many would rather leave it dirty and pay the cheap fine charged by sanitation departments," Tang said.

"The total ventilation tube of a 20-storey office building can be as long as 10 kilometers and special equipment is needed to clean it."

Regular maintenance can stop people getting sick from airborne bacteria.

Earlier this year 40 athletes and coaches in the Beijing training center of the State Sport General Administration were struck down with illness.

It was later revealed that the dirty ventilation tube of the air-conditioning system was to blame.

Experts from Beijing epidemic prevention center found that the dusty ventilation tubes had become a hotbed of viruses and bacteria, CCTV reported.

After a thorough cleaning of the ventilation tubes, the flu outbreak was halted.

Sick building syndrome

Besides the spread of respiratory infectious diseases, crowded and airtight offices can also produce "sick building syndrome".

Huang Xiaodi, 33, an employee of an IT company in Zhongguancun in Beijing, often feels dizzy, tired and cannot concentrate on work these days.

"Sharing a small office with a dozen people, I often feel short of breath," Huang said.

"However, we have to shut up the windows to avoid the heat and noise on the street."

Medical experts told Huang that he might be suffering from environment-related hypoxia, a type of sick building syndrome.

In low-oxygen environments with poor ventilation, such as crowded shopping malls, air-conditioned cars and offices, people often feel stuffy, hard to breathe and cannot concentrate.

These are symptoms of environment-related hypoxia, according to Wang Hanzhi, a doctor with the Guangren Hospital in Beijing.

"Long time exposure in a low-oxygen environment will affect brain function, causing dizziness, low appetite, affect memory and work efficiency," Wang said.

Stuffy offices also retain toxic gases generated by building material and furniture, such as ammonia and formaldehyde.

Therefore, all windows should be able to be opened to allow workers to control the flow of fresh air, Wang said.

Wang also recommended the use of plants to filter the air.

Regular exercise can help, too.

Zhou Wei, an instructor with a Beijing fitness club, said aerobics could enhance circulatory and respiratory efficiency and promote oxygen flow to the muscles.

"Vigorous and sustained exercise, such as jogging, swimming, or cycling, are the best choice," Zhou said.

(China Daily 07/23/2007 page5)