Hexagon House sickness?

The cause of the ailments suffered by workers in Hexagon House could be ‘sick building syndrome’ (SBS), a disease related to poor indoor air quality of buildings exposed to chemical or biological contaminants.

Replying to a question by Labour MP and MEPA employee Roderick Galdes, parliamentary secretary Mario De Marco confirmed that this possibility is being investigated.

SBS describes situations in which building occupants experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified.

A clear indication of SBS is when building occupants start complaining of symptoms such as cough, chest tightness, fever, chills, and muscle aches. Causes of the disease include inadequate ventilation as well as chemical or biological contaminants within or outside the building.

Hexagon House was bought from HSBC for the sum of  €4.3 million to house MEPA’s Environment Protection Department. To finance the purchase MEPA took a €3.1 million loan, repayable within four years, from the very fund that should be used to improve parking and traffic provisions in towns.

Parliamentary secretary for tourism and environment Mario de Marco recently moved his office there for a week in the building to personally monitor working conditions in the building.

In his reply to Galdes’s question, de Marco revealed that competent engineers are presently inspecting the ventilation system of the building. A decision was also taken to replace the ventilation system from negative displacement to positive displacement.  Experts are also monitoring air quality within the building.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, SBS is related to time spent in a particular building or part of a building. Symptoms resolve when the individual is not in the building, but recur seasonally (heating, cooling) and co-workers, peers start noted similar complaints.

Similar conditions have been observed in Hexagon House.

A 1984 World Health Organization report into the syndrome suggested up to 30% of new and remodelled buildings worldwide may be linked to symptoms of SBS. Sick building causes are frequently pinned down to flaws in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems or lack of adequate fresh-air intake/air filtration.

Building occupants complain of symptoms such as sensory irritation of the eyes, nose, throat; skin irritation and odour and taste sensations.

Waste oil connection excluded

Also in parliament, finance minister Tonio Fenech excluded that the illegal dumping of waste oils in the drainage system is the cause of the Hexagon House smells.

Fenech, who is responsible for energy, confirmed that no criminal procedures have been taken by the police on illegal dumping of waste oils in the drainage system in Marsa. The case was reported by MEPA to the Water Services Corporation.

The said irregularities were immediately redressed by the waste oil company and subsequent inspections by the WSC confirmed no further irregularities were committed, Fenech said.

The company was later granted an Integral Pollution Control Permit which prohibits the dumping of industrial waste. In February 2011 the WSC also conducted a week-long monitoring exercise on the drainage system around Hexagon House which excluded the dumping of petroleum products.