Motion sickness sensitivity and its relationship to occupant discomfort due to tall building motion sway

![CDATA[This paper draws together data from different surveys addressing occupant disturbance caused by the movement of wind-excited tall buildings. Two recent surveys find that the base level of motion sickness sensitivity is much higher than that originally reported from the limited sample Golding (2006) used to provide norms for the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (MSSQ), the standard survey used to assess motion sickness sensitivity. Re-analysis of Hong Kong survey of occupants reported disturbances to building movement reveal that people who are sensitive to motion sickness will report disturbances from their experience of wind-excited tall buildings at a rate 14.5 times that of people who report being insensitive to motion sickness. The recent surveys conducted in Wellington and Sydney show that motion sickness sensitivity occurs in around threequarters (72.5%) of the population of building occupants but only 25% of the Hong Kong sample report sensitivity to motion. The first finding establishes that most occupants will not only perceive motion in windexcited tall buildings, they will also experience a level of discomfort associated with the prodromal features of motion sickness, namely nausea, a feeling of sickness, dizziness and loss of concentration. The Hong Kong findings are discussed in the context of why tall building movement is not reported as a more widespread problem than these statistics would estimate.]]