Migdaley HaKyria in Tel Aviv: A Sick Building

This week I had a meeting in the Ministry for the Defense of the Environment in Tel Aviv. Very luxurious building and offices, large rooms and wide lobbies. I asked Nataly, an important officer, if the building was really sick as I had heard. She said that

the building was OK, the people inside was sick

The problem seems to be that the windows do not open, and the people inside suffers from burning eyes, a feeling of suffocation, diseases like head aches, vomit, etc. ¨We cannot breath¨, they complain.

The building were erected by the BOT system (Build, Operate, Transfer) by Africa Israel and Menrav and are rented to the Government. The project cost 450 million shekel in 2005 (about 120,000,000 $). The design included windows that cannot be opened and complete air conditioning installed in the rooftop. The Government says that windows have to be closed for security reasons, as learned from former attacks on govenment buildings. And their strongest argument: no one has ever submitted a scientific report proving that the air was unhealthy or that the office workers were sick more than before. (Hire me, I shall).

The problem covers all three government buildings in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem and in Haifa. In Haifa the windows were open and the fresh salted wind from the sea was rather enjoyable. In the Tel Aviv building, a sense of claustrophobia sized all of us, possibly because we had to pass through three successive security posts, and the lifts were small and looked menacing. The parking is in the lower floors and to get out we had to walk through narrow corridors and crowd in a miniature lift to the main lobby and there walk about 50 meters to take the other lift. The lower floors were really frightening (and I am used to be in closed spaces) and the air smelled of a latrine mixed with metallic odors that I could not identify. The foul air was transported to the lobby and dissipated there. My cloths smelled very badly after the meeting and had to change them at home.

Prima facie, it seems that the lower floors are not connected to air vents and the sanitary facilities are stinking. May be sewage pumping stations are there, unventilated. I wonder if the running water is filtered and sterilized against Legionella. I dont know if mould and fungus are also present in the system, most probably they are. The Migdaley HaKyriah Building in Tel Aviv seems to me a clear case of a sick building. I wrote in the Wiki (Hebrew):

עובדי הממשלה השוהים יום יום במגדלי הקירייה מתלוננים מהרגע הראשון על העובדה שלא ניתן לפוח את החלונות, וכן האוויר בלתי ניתן לנשימה. ריות ביוב וגזים רעילים הופכים את הקומות התחתונות ואת המרתפים למה שמוגדר בספרות המקצועית "מקום מוקף" מסוכן לבריואת האדם. מדובר, לכן, ה"בניין חולה" SICK BUILDING הדורש בדיקה מקצועית של מקור ריחות הביוב, האם מערכת איוור של הצנרת הסאניטארית עומדת בתיקני החל"ת (הוראות לתכנון) וכן את תקינות מערכת מיזוג. מערכת זו מותקנת על הגג ושואבת אוויר בגובה כאשר לא צריך להיות מומחה כדי לדעת ששכבות האטמוספירה מעל תל אביב מזוהמות (גם לאחר סילוק המזהם העיקרי - תחנת כוח "רידינג"). יש לבדוק גם נוכחות של פטריות ומושבות נסתרות של פיטריות הגורמות לאלרגיה ותופעות אוטו-אימוניות. לבסוף, יש לבדוק תקינות מערכת הספקת מי שתייה, כולל נוכחות של חיידק הלגיונלה.