[On the evaluation of health factors in high-rise buildings. 2. Bioclimatological consequences resulting from comparative measurements of the air ionisation in a high-rise building located in a heavily contaminated suburban area and at certain altitudes (author's transl)].

According to accepted scientific theories inhaled small ions deliver their charges in the pulmonary alveoli and this leads to local recharges. This process stimulates structures of the central nervous system and the activity of the endocrine is excited, resulting in an enhancement of the general well-being. These possibilities of interpretation regarding a biological ionic effect are supported, with reservations (e.g. effects produced by a change in climate), by positive medical effects during and after a stay in a well-ventilated mountain climate or also in a sea-climate. Owing to their lower mobility the large ions are inhaled as small ions to an increasing extent. The chemical and physical noxa are delivered and deposited in the respiratory tract. They "stick" the epithelia in the trachea and in the bronchi as well as the endothelia in the lung vesicles. The number of the ciliary movements is reduced. Similar effects are known to be caused also by nicotine abuse. This results in a decreased ability of expectoration and a lower intake of oxygen by the alveoli. These facts could furnish an explanation for the increased vulnerability of city dwellers to infections diseases and to catarrh. The changed ionisation of air in urbanised areas (mainly large ions in high concentrations) definitely represents only one of the many risk factors. In addition to the attempt to characterize bioclimatically local weather conditions by means of the non-conventional parameter "air ionisation" our study has also been intended to establish biologically oriented criteria for the living in a high-rise building in a particularly unfavourable location. Under specific microclimatic conditions the uppermost storeys were at times bioclimatically favoured over the lowermost, especially when shallow air inversion is present. In such cases, small ions exclusively were registered in the upper storeys and large ions in the lower floors.