Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a condition in which people in a building develop symptoms of illness or become infected with chronic disease from the building in which they work or reside. The outbreaks may or may not be a direct result of inadequate cleaning or inappropriate cleaning methods. SBS has also been used to describe staff concerns in post-war buildings with misplanned building aerodynamics, defects in the construction materials or assembly process and-or inadequate maintenance. Certain symptoms tend to increase in severity with the time people spend in the building; often improving over time or even disappearing when people are away from the building. SBS is also used interchangeably with "building-related symptoms", which orients the name of the condition around patients symptoms rather than a "sick" building. A 1984 World Health Organization (WHO) report suggested up to 30% of new and remodeled buildings worldwide may be subject of complaints related to poor indoor air quality. Other causes have been attributed to contaminants produced by outgassing of some types of building materials, volatile organic compounds (VOC), improper exhaust ventilation of ozone (byproduct of some office machinery), light industrial chemicals used within, or lack of adequate fresh-air intake/air filtration (see minimum efficiency reporting value).The main identifying observation is an increased incidence of complaints of symptoms such as headache, eye, nose, and throat irritation, fatigue, and dizziness and nausea. In fact the 1989 Oxford English Dictionary defines SBS in that way.
Oral lichen planus
Cicatricial pemphigoid or less commonly bullous pemphigoid
Pemphigus vulgaris
Linear immunoglobulin A disease
Dermatitis herpetiformis
Lupus erythematosus
Chronic ulcerative stomatitis
Chronic bacterial, fungal, and viral infections
Reactions to medications, mouthwashes, and chewing gumRare causes include:

Crohn’s disease
Sarcoidosis
Leukemia
factitious (self inflicted) lesions
Squamous cell carcinoma (can be mistaken for desquamative gingivitis)

Treatment
Improving oral hygiene
Minimising irritation of the lesions
Specific therapies for the underlying disease (where available)
Local or systemic immunosuppressive or dapsone therapy (notably not corticosteroids)

History
This condition was first recognized and reported in 1894, but the term desquamative gingivitis was not coined until 1932. References


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