ELECTRIC POTENTIAL DIFFERENCES AGAINST THE SURROUNDINGS AND DISCOMFORTS IN INDOOR ENVIRONMENT

In order to examine whether the factors causing work-related discomfort in indoor environments included electrostatic phenomena, the entire staff, or a randomized part of the staff, of four offices (108 persons in all) were examined. Subjects were interviewed, the indoor climate investigated and the voltage between each subject and an earthed reference point measured. The offices were clean and well-ventilated, and the potential differences were moderate (mean 0.42 kV in rooms with close-fitted carpets and 0.04 kV in rooms with other flooring materials; range of peak voltages −3.78 to +1.76 kV). The prevalence of symptoms of irritation of the eyes, face or upper respiratory tract did not differ between office employees for whom the mean voltage relative to earth was above 0.5 kV and those for whom it was below 0.5 kV, indicating that electrostatic phenomena of this magnitude are unimportant in this regard. Further investigations of the effect of higher voltages are desirable.