Ottawa acknowledges that workers may not be malingering when they blame fetid air for headaches, skin problems and nausea By Larry Millson "The globe and mail Toronto"

The air we breathe at work can give us a headache, make us drowsy, put a rasp in our throats, initially, the minor ailments might be dismissed as the flu or the byproduct of stress. But eventually some people become so ill they cannot work, a notion often met with skepticism, particularly from their bosses.

Ask Paul Gibson, a former maintenance mechanic at the Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre who suffered persistent headaches, sore throat and abdominal pain on the job and has campaigned against his employer for more than 10 years. Along the way, he has lost his job and, although a grievance board overturned his firing for absenteeism, he is resigned to the fact that, at 61 he will never return to work.

Or ask Vera Wall, 45, a former program manager at the federal government's Terrasses de la Chaudihre in Hull, Ont. Ms. Wall's symptoms included chronic . throat infection, influenza symptoms, skin rash and constant headache. In may, the federal government made its final appeal over a Quebec workers' compensation award giving her credit for 13 sick days from a 1981 claim; a ruling is expected this month.

Mr. Gibson and Ms. Walt - who left her job in 1986 - have paid the price for being ahead of their time in complaining about inhospitable, unhealthy work-place air, about sick building syndrome.

Now, the world is catching up. At the first International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate held in Copenhagen in 1978, 230 people heard 47 full-length papers delivered over three days. Last year, a week- long conference in Toronto attracted about 2,000 people from 35 nations, and 550 papers and 750 abstract were presented.

James F. Woods of Virginia Polytechnic Institute spoke of the dimensions of the problem. "It is now generally assumed that 20 to 30 percent of the existing building stock in Europe and North America may be characterized as problem buildings, "he said", The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of all new and remodeled buildings have unhealthy air.

The US. National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health refers to indoor-air quality as a "booming" concern. In Canada, problems stemming from air in the work place account for 10 per cent of work done by the Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers. The Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton responded to 1,306 inquiries from 1987 to 1989 involving indoor-air quality. In 1988-89, more than 3,907 tests for carbon dioxide a measurement of inadequate ventilation were conducted in Ontario government buildings, more than twice as many as in 1986-87.

The problem of unhealthy air quality stems from the energy crisis of the seventies, when business' looked for ways to save on energy. The response was airtight buildings, sealed windows, the recirculation of air through a building's heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. The move kept out the outside including fresh air and kept in the noxious fumes and by-products of building materials.

The air-borne villains of these sealed offices are many. Hair spray and perfumes worn by co-workers can severely effect hypersensitive or allergic people, says Dr. Norman Epstein, director of the allergy clinic at St. Joseph's Health Center in Toronto.

Copying machines, office furniture, carpets, drapes and felt tipped markers put chemicals into the air. Molds and fungi are produced in the humidifying system. Federal buildings have erased a ' major indoor air pollutant by banning smoking, says Gary Cwitco of the Communications and Electrical Workers of Canada, but other noxious chemicals remain.

Carpets and wall-coverings produce gases. Ozone levels from photocopiers are high. Because of bad design, carbon monoxide enters buildings through intake vents located where cars idle or at unloading docks. For sensitive employees, the result can be illness but not quite enough of an illness to convince the non-believer.

" They get headaches, " says Dr. Epstein. "When they're away on the weekend, they're all right. When they come back on Monday they start with a headache and a feeling of tiredness. Many of them are told that they are neurotic and they are really not neurotic."