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Since the year of 2005, we started at the Workers’ Health Surveillance
of the municipality of São Paulo, an inspection activity in environments
of large public incursion in order to verify a recurring complaint and a
massive transmission by the media concerning sick buildings.
TheMinistry of Public Labor had requested this action while concerned
in terms of the risk to which workers would be subject when exposed to the
interior air of the buildings.
The shopping centers of the city were chosen as an initial target due
to the large influx of people and the great amount of workers at their
environment. In a pilot program we chose the ten largest establishments
in the capital and soon a situation called our attention: despite of all the
existing legislations and norms concerning the subject, this situation had
never before been inspected by any official office and therefore the issue had
ceased being object of the action of entrepreneurs thus presenting a total
disregard in terms of maintenance of the air conditioning and ventilation
systems and consequently risking the indoor air quality.
The inspections continued on in several kinds of facilities, including
public buildings, phone customer service units, schools and pre-college
preparatory courses, hotels and the same situation of poor compliance was
perpetuating.
None of the inspected facilities used to make analysis for the presence
of
Legionella
in the condensation or in the cooling towers, for it was believed
(an “urban legend”) that the bacterium was not present in our country.
In 2010, we received a notification from the CCD (Center for Control
of Diseases) in Atlanta informing that a tourist had been in a hotel in
downtown São Paulo and by arriving back to New York he had been
