JOY Li was the victim of renovation - just weeks after moving into an office building on Nanjing Donglu, she began suffering from a running nose, sore throat and severe chronic headache.

She is not the only person in the office suffering from health problems: many of her 30 colleagues have various problems, ranging from skin allergies to chronic coughs and sore throats.

"As we stepped into the office, we felt as if the strong chemical smell almost killed us. So we suspect they (health problems) might be due to the air quality, because we moved into the office less than a month after the renovation project ended," said Li.

The continuous sickness of employees made their French boss come to realize the seriousness of the problem. A check of the air conditioning confirmed their suspicions. Some harmful factors in the air were found to be present at twice the accepted level.

"Indoor air quality is a common problem in office buildings in Shanghai, especially after renovation, and the situation is quite serious," said Wang Fang, deputy secretary general of Shanghai Indoor Environment Treatment Association.

To get a general understanding of indoor air quality, the association is now carrying out free air tests in 40 office buildings with more than 20 floors.

"High levels of pollutants emitted by non-green building materials and furniture, insufficient ventilation system and unclean heating and cooling system are the major causes of indoor air quality problems," Wang added.

Wang's words are supported by a recent report which says that 30 per cent of green plants in some local office buildings died due to poor indoor air quality.

In China's chaotic building materials market, many materials such as compressed wood, glues, paint and marble products have not been certified as "green products" or environmentally friendly. The chemical pollution and radiation emitted by substandard products creates a serious health hazard for people in buildings where they are used.

"Insufficient ventilation and substandard design of ventilation systems in office buildings worsens the pollution problem," said Cui Lixin, of the Shanghai Green Home Company, a specialist in air testing and treatment.

In order to save energy, builders have designed sealed office buildings, leaving only a very few small windows to let outdoor air flow in. In Li's 200-square-metre office, only the windows in the conference room can be opened.

However, insiders say that the property management company seldom turns the ventilation system on fully because energy consumption increases 30 per cent at full operation.

"We once found the intake of the ventilation system totally sealed by an iron net which showed the system had never been used. In some other cases, the intake and outtake equipment of the building's ventilation system were installed in the wrong position," said Cui.

The results of fresh air shortage can be serious, in addition to the concentration of pollutants. Sleepiness and fatigue are the general symptoms of oxygen shortage, and a doctor surnamed Xia from Changhai Hospital said that long-term oxygen shortage could lead to damage to the brain and important organs.

Legal dispute

Lawyer Oliver Li at the Guangsheng & Partners Attorneys at Law (Shanghai) has become increasingly aware of indoor air quality in dealing with property disputes.

"The disputes are usually about the renovation quality: inferior raw material and indoor air pollution," said Li, who has dealt with more than 30 such cases since 2003.

One case involved hotel-type apartments on Shanxi Beilu, which had been renovated from an unfinished office building, and had 600 owners. Right after the developers handed the renovated apartments to these owners, about 20 came to Li, complaining that the renovation quality was far from the developer's promise.

"The chemical smell is too bad to live in the room. After my brother once stayed in the apartment for several hours, he had to see a doctor due to a serious rash on his skin," said one of the owners, Shen Ying, who said she was unable to find a long-term leaseholder because of the condition of the apartment.

An air test one year after Shen took possession of the apartment showed that harmful chemical pollutants were much higher than the national standard. But Li, as well as other lawyers involved in such disputes, face a legal blank wall when it comes to regulating air quality.

The Shanghai Indoor Renovation and Decoration Testing Standards have been implemented since March 2003. "With the compulsory item on air quality, comsumers have the right to ask property developers or renovation companies to provide air quality certificates. But, few are yet aware of this item," said Wang.