QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Allergic To Air Conditioning

Would an air specialist be able to test dry, cold air?

Posted by Heidi Schwartz

This Question of the Week comes from the Facilities Management Group on LinkedIn.

Have you ever had anyone claim to be allergic to the air conditioning in your building? Everyone moans about the air con in the office but this is different; the person suffers from dry eyes, sore throat which slowly gets worse, and ends up with time off work sick with flu like symptoms. The pattern keeps repeating itself every four to six weeks.

The system is newly installed (it’s only about five months old) and the person only seems to have problems when the cold air blows. Workstations have been rearranged so the person could try different parts of the office, but the problem remains. Now the employee is working from home on a regular basis.

The person is adamant about being allergic to the air con and is pushing for us to remove it in the section where they work. This is not feasible, but I am keen to try every avenue to demonstrate we have taken the complaint seriously. Ultimately there is only so much that is reasonably practicable. I have arranged for our maintenance company to carry out a full clean and inspection, but would an air specialist be able to test dry, cold air, which is one of the major concerns?

Kellie Lord-Thomas
Facilities Manager
Non-Profit Organization
London, England

Share your feedback and suggestions in the LEAVE A COMMENT section below.


16 COMMENTS

  1. Can anyone advise me the industry where Air conditioning is not used now days.
    because am allergic to the cooling gas used in air-condition. Can not perform my office work efficiently as normally I do. I am 45 years old and don’t know where I can work with full energy.
    I will be very Grateful if anybody can help me out.
    thanks,

  2. I also suffer from sore throat and bronchial pain when in an airconditioned room. Would wearing a mask help?

  3. An air conditioning sustem can’t work without refrigerant, a chemical to cool within the coils to help cool and redistribute the air. This chemical has caused problems for years. So much so that 180 nations signed a pledge that by 2030 the chemicals used in airconditoners would be fazed out to blended and CFH because it was damaging the ozone and not good for health. Many air conditioners are still using the harsh chemicals as they last up to 30 years. It is a slow poisoning that makes more sensitive people have instant Allergic symptoms.

  4. Yes there sure is and it is misery!!!!
    I solved it this way I moved the employee into a small partitioned room with a outside window.they have a vent control in there space as well as having the ability to shut it off and open the window or a combo of both. This can be done cheap by maintenance. We actually had 5 people in all 4 who did not know it was that that was making them sick. We took a area and used cheap panels to make cubicles. Worked great and really cut the sick time from the affected EMP.

  5. i have been allergic to a/c for 30 or 40 years — at first it was easy to avoid not much around but now i can’t go to a movie or a play or even lunch in the summer – i have a swamp cooler at home – it doesn’t bother me – but with a/c the colder it is kept the faster i get sick – headache sinus infection and if still in it bronchitis i have been to several doctors none of which have helped me – now that a/c is everywhere i have talked to a lot more people with allergies to it

  6. Hi. I am suffering withthe same AC’simptoms and yes i there is an allergy to AC and i have all the simptoms your employee has and believe me they are terrible to handle. :(

  7. I suffer from chronic headaches for the air conditioner. It is like to gas is poisonous to me. My workplace have put in fans to distribute to air evenly throughout the room. They have had the air con cleaned. I feel that it is worse if the air is set under 24.5 degrees C. I have not found a solution yet.

  8. I know this is a very old post, but want to let you know that I suffer from same symptoms almost entire my life after I start working.. Solution for me is avoid direct contact with Ac, your employer is not lying. I have to say this behaviour is sucks, another solution which I don’t recommend is hide the remote :)

  9. Air con has always been associated with some common issues like sore throats, asthmatic symptoms, respiratory infections, hoarseness, inflammatory conditions of the eye, irritated skin, headaches, and fatigue but not to all. Since we remove moisture from air through A/C and the cold air can carry only less moisture and hence is more dry, it results in drying out the body surfaces which majorly includes the eyes, skin, throat and the nasal passages. Since the body surface is dry and can form crack, it let the bacteria and other contaminants to enter our body and react badly.

    Following may be more reasons in causing the issue:

    Your Air con may be running below standards and you need to get a third party inspection done, in order to check the air quality as per ASHRAE standards etc. This is common for Clean room applications however can be done in a special cases as in case of your premises.

    Person may be highly sensitive or the body may be having extremely less strength for fighting against such conditions. The temp. in various areas can be maintain differently by adopting some common techniques like VAV, rebalancing of air as/ requirements. You need to keep the temp. little higher (b/w 27 to 29 Degree C) for such people.

    Hope that resolves the difficulty.

    Cheers!!

  10. I have to make a lot of assumptions with this…

    This could easily be the result of LOW humidity. Assuming you didn’t replace the old air conditioner just for grins and giggles, the new one is probably drying out the air much more effectively than the old one did. (lower coil temp = more dehumidification) Check the humidity of the room air. (not at the duct outlet) You may need to ADD humidification. Have you noticed an increase in static electricity?

    Adding humidification can be done at the air conditioner, inside the ductwork or locally with water atomizers. Adding a water line to a rooftop unit may be a problem due to freezing in the winter and/or a leak could flood the ductwork and office. If low humidity is the problem, discuss your options with your HVAC contractor and review your insurance policy.

    Since “no one is inexpendable” and moreso these days than ever before, how far you are willing to go for this employee depends on how much you value thier services. But assuming that their working from home is not a good thing, (I’ve had co-workers I wished would work from home!) and assuming they are highly valued, at least valued equal to or greater than the cost of a lawsuit, I would first hire an Indoor Air Quality consultant to thoroughly test the building. I’m assuming, of course, that there is not another environmnetal zone avialable or you would have moved them to it.

    If the IAQ expert finds something, fix it and move one. I’m assuming the IAQ expert will not find anything. My next step would be to request of the employee that they be tested by an alergy specialist in order to identify the trigger for their symptoms.
    And either they can or can’t. Which leads you to a whole other set of decisions to make.

  11. Air con has always been associated with some common issues like sore throats, asthmatic symptoms, respiratory infections, hoarseness, inflammatory conditions of the eye, irritated skin, headaches, and fatigue but not to all. Since we remove moisture from air through A/C and the cold air can carry only less moisture and hence is more dry, it results in drying out the body surfaces which majorly includes the eyes, skin, throat and the nasal passages. Since the body surface is dry and can form crack, it let the bacteria and other contaminants to enter our body and react badly.
    Following may be more reasons in causing the issue:
    Your Air con may be running below standards and you need to get a third party inspection done, in order to check the air quality as per ASHRAE standards etc. This is common for Clean room applications however can be done in a special cases as in case of your premises.
    Person may be highly sensitive or the body may be having extremely less strength for fighting against such conditions. The temp. in various areas can be maintain differently by adopting some common techniques like VAV, rebalancing of air as/ requirements etc. etc.. You need to keep the temp. little higher (b/w 27 to 29 Degree C) for such people.
    Hope that resolves the difficulty.
    Cheers!!

  12. You may want to check out some of the accessories that can be added to any A/C system to increase IAQ levels. I would suggest bi-polar ionization technology as offered by AtmosAir. It is a tested and proven technology that is often used for severe azma patients.

  13. Yes; relative humidity and temperature are routinely measured and listed on IAQ (indoor air quality) inspections. It could end up being as simple as adding humidity to the AC unit supplying this worker’s area, or providing them a small desktop humidifyer.

  14. There are many accessories that can be added to any A/C system to increase IAQ levels even higher than outside air. Perhaps you can take a look at the line of products offered by AtmosAir. Their bi-polar ionization technology is test and proven.
    http://www.atmosair.com

  15. It sounds like you need more than just a cleaning and inspection of your system. The symptoms the employee is experiencing sounds more like an indoor air quality problem. Your business may need better air filtration, as well as humidification/dehumidification. A lack of humidity could definitely result in dry eyes and sore throat. There are a variety of air filtration systems on the market as well. Trane makes a really good Filtration system called CleanEffects. You might also consider a UV light. It will eliminate most mold, allergens, odors, etc. Find a company that specializes in solutions to these types of problems. There are a ton of companies out there that want to just sell you a new system and sign you up to maintain it. You need a company that solves problems.

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