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Negative Affect and Chemical Intolerance as Risk Factors for Building-Related Symptoms: A Controlled Exposure Study

From the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine of UMDNJ-RWJ Medical School (N.F., H.K., K.K.-M.), Department of Biostatistics (P.O.-S.), UMDNJ School of Public Health; Exposure Science Division (J.Z.), UMDNJ-RWJ School of Public Health; and VA Medical Center (J.O.), East Orange, New Jersey.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Nancy Fiedler, Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, EOHSI–170 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854. E-mail: nfiedler{at}eohsi.rutgers.edu

Objective: To assess whether differences in negative affect (NA) and chemical intolerance (CI) affect responses to chemical mixtures and stress in a controlled experimental model.

Methods: Participants were 130 nonsmoking, healthy women, recruited from a university community. Participants completed the Positive and Negative Affect Scale and the Chemical Odor Intolerance Index. In separate sessions 1 week apart, they were exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), VOCs with ozone (VOCs+O₃), and ambient or filtered air with a 1-minute spike of VOCs (masked clean air). During each session, half of the participants performed a videotaped speech stressor and half performed simple arithmetic. Before, during, and after each session, salivary cortisol samples were collected, and subjects completed neurobehavioral tests and used a ratio scale to rate physical, cognitive, and anxiety symptoms.

Results: Relative to low NA or low CI, neither the high NA nor the high CI groups reported significantly more symptoms in response to any exposure condition. High NA subjects reported more anxiety symptoms in response to the speech stressor but did not have higher cortisol than low NA subjects. High NA subjects, however, were more distressed by the experimental conditions than were low NA subjects. Low NA subjects reported more severe anxiety in the VOCs+O₃ with psychological stress condition.

Conclusions: Subjects high in NA were more anxious after a stressor but were not more physically symptomatic in response to increasing chemical exposures. A disposition toward high or low CI did not result in a differential symptomatic response to controlled chemical exposures.

Key Words: negative affect • psychological stress • chemical intolerance • volatile organic compounds • controlled exposure

Abbreviations: CEF = controlled environment facility; CI = chemical intolerance; CII = chemical odor intolerance index; CO₂ = carbon dioxide; ECG = electrocardiogram; IRB = Institutional Review Board; MCA = masked clean air; MCS = multiple chemical sensitivity; NA = negative affect; NSBRI = non-specific building-related illness; POL = performance on-line; SAS = statistical analysis system; TLV = threshold limit value; UMDNJ = University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; VOCs = volatile organic compounds; VOC+O₃ = VOCs with ozone.