摘要：Indoor nonindustrial work environments were designated a priority research area through the nationwide stakeholder process that created the National Occupational Research Agenda. A multidisciplinary research team used member consensus and quantitative estimates, with extensive external review, to develop a specific research agenda. The team outlined the following priority research topics: building-influenced communicable respiratory infections, building-related asthma/allergic diseases, and nonspecific building-related symptoms; indoor environmental science; and methods for increasing implementation of healthful building practices. Available data suggest that improving building environments may result in health benefits for more than 15 million of the 89 million US indoor workers, with estimated economic benefits of $5 to $75 billion annually. Research on these topics, requiring new collaborations and resources, offers enormous potential health and economic returns. In 1996, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and diverse partners within the US occupational health community, with input and review by more than 500 organizations and individuals including employers, employees, safety and health professionals, public agencies, and industry and labor organizations, developed the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA). NORA identified 21 priority areas in which new research could most effectively reduce work-related illnesses, injuries, and deaths in the coming decade. 1 For each priority area, NIOSH convened a multidisciplinary, multistakeholder team of individuals internal and external to NIOSH to further define and then facilitate this national research agenda. This article presents a defined research agenda for 1 NORA priority area—the indoor work environment.
