Sick Building Syndrome Study of a Historical Place in Karachi

Sick building syndrome (SBS) is characterized by a group of common symptoms that occur inside the building like working offices, schools, malls or industries. It causes many adverse health effects due to tightly packed indoor environment. This is the first study done at the historical place of Karachi pertaining to SBS. A questionnaire based survey was conducted in Empress market, Karachi in October 2018 to find out the negative impact on human health as well as to give awareness about SBS to workers. This building consists of almost 280 shops and workers. The workers suffer from common health diseases like headache, fatigue and dryness of the throat. Congested areas, no ventilation, poor design and heavy traffic were observed. Fans were the only source of ventilation. SBS effects can be reduced by the good ventilation source, proper cleaning system, building maintenance and proper bimonthly checkup of the workers. Keywords: sick building syndrome, indoor environment, awareness, human health, ventilation systems