Each year, thousands of people get flu-like symptoms from the buildings they live or work in. Causes range from air pollutants, allergens, pathogens and poor ventilation to exposed asbestos insulation and inadequate light.

A new book, Keeping Buildings Healthy: How To Monitor and Prevent Indoor Environment Problems (New York: Wiley-Interscience, $79.95, 361 pages), is aimed at helping both building managers and owners resolve existing indoor air problems and preventing future environmental problems.

Alan Hedge, professor of design and environmental analysis at Cornell University and director of Cornell's Human Factors Laboratory, is one of the authors of the book, which considers the environment in both manufacturing and office buildings. Covering legal, medical, industrial hygiene and engineering issues, the book's 17 chapters address how to know if a building has an indoor environmental quality problem, what factors can affect the indoor environment, how to investigate health complaints, what effects indoor air quality may have on health, government building inspections, laws and building management, options to sue, insurance law and case studies.

Hedge's recent research has looked at the effects of alternative smoking policies on indoor air quality and sick-building syndrome, and the effects of personal and occupational factors on the syndrome. Hedge authored four chapters of the book, including those on research about indoor environmental quality concerns, the behavioral aspects of investigating health complaints and communicating results of investigations.

The other authors are James T. O'Reilly, adjunct professor of law at the University of Cincinnati; Philip Hagan, director of safety and environmental management at Georgetown University; and Ronald Gots, principal at the International Center for Toxicology and Medicine in Rockville, Md.