Back in the early 80's, there was a sudden boom in demand for office buildings here in the UK. The US had the same kind of boom, and all of a sudden office buildings were being designed and hurled up just about everywhere.And then about 3-4 years later, once the buildings were completed, and companies were based in them, and people were using them day in day out, people discovered something. The buildings made them ill.

   At the time it was written off as people moaning about change - nothing unusual there. But it became more and more obvious.These beautifully designed buildings, all made from concrete, brick and glass, made people ill. The office spaces were all air-conditioned, sterile, sealed off from fresh air, lit by fluorescent tubes, populated with computers, VDUs, photocopiers, fax machines, printers, drinks machines, and the multitude of other garbage that was "necessary" to the working office. And of course, there were people - I sometimes wonder if the architects had anticipated that.

   The thing that really wasn't taken into account at all was the effect the building would have on the people within it - and also the effect the people would have on each other.Because of the way the air-conditioning "works", if one person has a cold (for example) then the air they're breathing constantly recirculates around the office (if not the entire building) because of the air-con. HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters (the only ones fine enough to filter out viruses, colds, flu, illness etc.) aren't used in a good 99% of air-conditioning systems. So the little droplets of virus-infected breath just keep wandering around until they find some other nice pair of lungs to infect. And another. And another. So people become ill.

   It doesn't end there, though. As well as the constant and endless round of colds and flu - and I'm sure TB and many other respiratory illnesses can be carried the same way - there's the effect of the rest of the building to consider.The entire building becomes a closed system - the only new air in the building comes in when the door to the main lobby is opened, and that's a pitifully small amount in relation to the sheer cubic size of any office building.So as well as the lack of fresh air - in itself a problem, not just because of aircon, but because the stale air in any building isn't particularly healthy or refreshing - the artificial light isn't good either.

   You can generally spot a bunch of office workers from about 500 yards - the pasty whiteness of their skin isn't just because they work in offices, but because they only work under fluorescent lighting. And that's just no replacement for natural light.Considering the way the architects of these buildings embraced the use of glass for the lobby/atrium, and how amazing it can make buildings look, they always skimp somewhat when it comes to windows in an office. Or (if there's enough windows in an office building) then people refuse to help themselves, and instead block off the windows with blinds etc., because natural light glares off their monitors. Then again, a lot of that is down to abysmal planning of the office, where people are supposed to look away from the windows and concentrate only on their work, only on their PC screen, so the monitor faces the window, and reflects the light of day.

   So, when all's said and done, you have a situation where there are lots of people within a closed system of air, primarily using only artificial light, with little to no ventilation, and constantly picking up viruses, colds, flu, etc.It's no wonder the entire syndrome ended up being called "Sick Building Syndrome" (SBS).It's not moaning (for once) about change, new environments, and so on. It is, in fact, a nightmare situation that's arisen because architects and companies don't really regard the people inside those buildings as people. They didn't really give a damn about them - they did all the studies on how the buildings would work, would stand up, whether they were structurally sound, whether they'd got enough floorspace, powerpoints, and the functional stuff. They just forgot to do any studies on how people would interact with these buildings.

   And that was a fuck-up of epic proportions.

   I'm "lucky" - I get to work in a whole load of these buildings, and experience SBS for myself. And it really is amazing how much of an effect it does have on people. I'm aware of the effects it has on me, and so can see the way people around me react to it too. Personally, my ideal office would have loads of natural light, some fresh air (or at least oxygen) - and ideally be somewhere like a garden or a patio where I can work in the open air. However, I end up in sick buildings for the majority of the time, and some of them are stunners.

   For example, the one I'm in at the moment.I find myself actively needing to go outside about every hour to 90 minutes, just to get some fresh air and natural light into my system. How other people don't need to do the same is something that amazes me. Where I am, the exterior of the building and it's surrounds are fine - right next to the canal and quays, so it's a fairly open area with plenty of light, and of course water (that's just my own personal hippie preference). But inside the office it's a different matter - the windows are small (although there are a decent number of them) and 95% are permanently covered by metal vertical blinds that let no light through. The main illumination is strip-light hell, flourescent tubes as far as the eye can see.

   And fresh air? You must be joking. In an office holding 75-100 people, there are no opening windows, and only one door out to the central atrium of the building. The only other alternative to fresh air is to have plants helping regenerate the air, photosynthesising the CO2 and pollutants in the air and throwing out oxygen as a byproduct - and in total there are five plants in this office. Nowhere near enough for what's needed.

   The thing is, most people still don't even really understand about SBS, and the ones who always seem the least aware of it are the ones who are actually suffering from it. Since the '80s, this has just been "how offices are" - and change is difficult to foment when people don't even truly realise either what it is they need, what they need to change, or what they should be able to have in a work environment. For Gods sake, we spend half our waking hours at work - shouldn't we spend just as much time making sure the work environment is a good one as we do when we're dealing with our home environments?

   Some companies are aware that their buildings are sick, and have worked hard to rectify the situation. I've been in one grossly ill building where the company that owned it actively encouraged people to face the windows so they get their natural illumination as much as possible, to bring in plants (and the company paid for plant rental and maintenance too) and make their working environment as acceptable as possible, considering that it wasn't the employee's fault the building was sick. But for every company that does care about the health and environment of their staff, there are 50 that don't - don't know, don't care, don't intend to change.

   Where I'm sat at the moment, I reckon that about 80% of the people I work with are affected by their working environment in this sick building I'm in. Out of that 80%, at least half are seriously affected by it - the ones who are permanently ill, "under the weather", depressed, stifled, or just plain unwell. The other half suffer the same things, but to a lesser degree.But having 40% of your workforce failing to operate at their full efficiency, feeling unwell, and generally not really being able to concentrate on their work, surely that should worry an employer?

   Of course, the irony in all of this is the fact that this company I'm working for at the moment, this particular one that really doesn't appear to care all that much about the people who work for it, didn't do any studies about SBS and working environments, is a company that's very reason for existing is health...

   Or maybe it's just me that sees the black humour of a company like that operating from a series of buildings that makes it's employees unhealthy.