The health effects of odor emission from domestic renovation on household residents in Tianjin, China.
The health effects of odors emitted from the human environment have received some discussion in the literature. Little has been written, however, about the health effects of odor emissions from renovation. The authors therefore conducted a cross-sectional study with a simple randomized sampling design. The sample was selected from a building-and-construction registry that registered all building and domestic renovation applications in Tianjin, China. Information on demographics, physical symptoms, and health status was collected via personal interviews. Air samples were also collected from each household for chemical analysis. Data were analyzed with weighted logistic-regression models. A significant association was found between exposure to odor emission and unspecific physical symptoms. After potential confounders were adjusted for, it was found that people who had been exposed to moderate-to-strong odor emissions from renovations were about four times more likely to report experiencing unspecific discomfort than were people who had been exposed to weak odor emissions (odds ratio = 4.05; 95 percent confidence interval = 1.49-11.03). The results indicate that odor emissions from domestic renovation have a detrimental effect on human physical health. This effect seemed to be independent from that generated by chemicals. Implications and prevention strategies are discussed.
Liu
Hong-Liang
HL
University of Sydney, Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Faculty of Medicine, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.
Lam
Lawrence T
LT
Wang
Ting
T
Hou
Chang-Chun
CC
Zeng
Qiang
Q
Feng
Li-Hong
LH
Chen
Xue-Min
XM
D000328:Adult; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005160:Facility Design and Construction; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009812:Odorants
D000393:Air Pollutants