Environmental tobacco smoke and indoor air quality in modern office work environments.

Recent attempts to clean the air in modern sealed office buildings appear to have focused on one component of indoor air quality, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Prohibiting smoking entirely or designating specific smoking areas has been suggested to improve comfort of office workers and reduce acute symptoms of so-called "building illness." The effectiveness of such methods, as well as the overall relation of ETS to indoor air quality, are here evaluated, based on reviews of a large number of studies of indoor air quality in modern office buildings under normal use and occupancy. Under these conditions, ETS does not appear to contribute significantly to a build-up of contaminants in offices. Also, in two large series of studies of buildings with health and comfort complaints in the US and Canada, ETS does not appear to be associated with cases of building illness.