I have been working at a company for the past few months.  Since working there I have had headaches, burning nostrils and light- headedness.  The first month there was a terrible odor.  I complained to the HR Dept.  The maintenance man said he would take care of it, never stating that he knew what the problem was.  This past week it was real bad and he finally said it was sewer gases.  My concern is how does this affect our bodies.  Is there a test that we can take?   Isn’t this dangerous to our health?  The smell has gone into the material on the cubicles, carpeting and ceiling tiles, so it is always there.  Can a carbon monoxide alarm detect these gases?  We are in the old part of the building and I am right on top of the problem.  Today I am sick again. -Ursula, Connecticut 

Sewer gas has a combined odor of both hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs) and ammonia.  Generally most individuals notice the sulfur odor first since it detectable by smell even in very low concentrations. Ammonia on the other hand has to be in much higher concentrations before one can smell it.  Ammonia is particularly irritating to the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose and throat.  Burning nostrils is a key indicator of exposure to elevated ammonia levels.  As such, it is highly probable that sewer gas entry into your building is the cause of the odor and irritation problems you have been reporting. Though ammonia is irritating you should not experience any long term health effects from being exposed to it at levels which are in sewer gas.

There is no low cost detector/alarm device for sewer gases.  Building occupants already have a sensitive detector, their nose.  If it smells like sewer gas, it is.   There is no reason that any building should have a sewer gas problem for more than a couple of weeks.  Five years is an incredibly long time to put up with a sewer gas problem and for building management to not resolve such a problem.

The fact that you are in the older section of your building is a major part of the problem.  As plumbing changes occur in old buildings it is often the case that lines from sinks and floor drains are no longer used.  If they are not capped, traps, which are normally filled with water, soon become dry.  Such dry traps serve as a conduit for sewer gases into buildings when negative pressures occur as a consequence of excessive use of exhaust, changes in barometric pressure, etc.  Because sewer gas is so dependent on building pressure conditions it tends to “come and go”.

In order to resolve this problem, it is necessary to find the one or more dry traps that are present. Dry traps tend to be located in areas where the odor is the strongest.  In most cases, the “sniff test” can be used to identify the sewer gas source.  In more difficult cases sewer gas sources can be identified by methane “sniffing” devices.

Once the suspect drain is identified the sewer gas problems can be eliminated on a short-term bases by pouring water into the drain trap periodically. However in many cases the custodial staff fails to keep on top of things and the problem quickly returns. If the drain is not going to be used it should be capped.