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Boguslaw Lipinski, PhD
H. S. Research Laboratory Boston

JAMA. 1988;260(5):635-636.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

In their article entitled "Building-Associated Risk of Febrile Acute Respiratory Diseases in Army Trainees,"¹ the authors suggest that the risk of building-associated respiratory tract infection is caused by recirculation and concentration of airborne-transmitted pathogens, while in "leaky" buildings these pathogens are diluted by fresh outdoor air. While this is a plausible notion, there is another, generally ignored factor that might contribute to the explanation of this important health problem. Fresh, outdoor air contains a certain amount of electrically charged species. A negative charge is usually attached to oxygen and positive to carbon dioxide molecules. In modern buildings, particularly in those equipped with energy-efficient ventilation systems, concentrations of negatively charged oxygen molecules are much lower compared with outside air and sometimes reach zero. I have measured air ion concentrations in various buildings using an air ion counter and mobil ity discriminator coupled to an electrometer and have . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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