The OFFICAIR project aimed to describe comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ) in new and retrofitted office buildings in Europe. In France, 21 office buildings participated in this project. In a subsample of five buildings, IAQ measurements and performance tests were carried out to study the relations between IAQ and work performance. Twenty-one compounds were measured (volatile organic compounds, aldehydes, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone) as well as environmental parameters: Carbon dioxide, temperature, and relative humidity, over five days in two different seasons. The occupants in the investigated rooms were invited to participate in two on-line task performance tests: A reaction time test, i.e., the standardized Deary-Liewald test, and a memory test. There were participants in summer and 98 in winter. They also provided self-assessments of the influence of the indoor environment on their productivity. The multilevel linear regression models showed that individual characteristics were the main factors determining performance at work. Indoor air concentrations of xylenes and ozone might influence reaction time during summer. Both in summer and winter, the occupants' satisfaction regarding noise and their perceived ability to control their indoor temperature increased their self-assessed productivity. This work is the first to study the influence of IAQ on performance in real work environments and on the basis of IAQmeasurements. This study was limited to five buildings, but it would be useful to repeat it on a larger scale.

The OFFICAIR project aimed to describe comfort and indoor air quality in new and retrofitted office buildings in Europe. This article reports the perceived comfort and health, as well as their relations with building characteristics, in the 21 participating office buildings in France. Occupant perception and personal information were collected through an online questionnaire. In parallel, a building audit was performed to describe each building. The survey took place between January and April 2012 over two weeks in each building. Among the 1,190 respondents, 54% were dissatisfied with the noise from the other occupants, 48% with dry air, and 46% with stuffy air. The most common health symptoms attributed to the building were headaches (31% of the respondents), dry eyes (27%), irritated eyes (21%) and a dry or sore throat (21%). No difference was observed between the French buildings and the European sample (167 buildings, 7,441 respondents). The perceived indoor environment and related health symptoms seemed similar to those reported in past studies. The multilevel linear regressions highlight the major influence of the individual parameters on both indoor air quality and comfort perception, as well as on PSI-5 (number of building-related symptoms across five symptoms defining the sick building syndrome). Occupants who could control their indoor environment had better perceptions. Similarly, an efficient procedure for managing building-related complaints was associated with better perceptions of indoor air quality and comfort and with fewer building-related health effects.