How to Manage the Air Quality in Your Workplace

Air pollution can have a negative effect on everyone’s health. It can be a nuisance and cause itchy eyes or coughing, but it may also cause more serious repercussions. Bad air can cause or worsen many diseases that are lung-related and can lead to hospitalization, cancer, and even premature death. 

You can be exposed to polluted air almost everywhere, but the exposure is higher near sources of pollution like roadways or factories. Even in our homes or workplaces, we can breathe in dangerous substances from sources like badly-maintained AC’s or from chemicals we use for cleaning. Even the particles from our deodorants may affect your health negatively. 

How to Improve Indoor Air Quality

It may sound nice to work in a warm and cozy office during chilly seasons, but for people who have respiratory problems or allergies, this kind of stale-air environment may be hazardous. Making an effort to resolve or at least diminish these issues can help you breathe easier and live healthier. 

The first tip is sort of obvious, just keep everything as clean as possible. Whether it be your home or workplace, working on keeping your environment spotless can make a tremendous difference in air quality. It will reduce the risk of mold or dust spreading. You should vacuum often, with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter equipped vacuum if possible. Another good tip is to remove the carpets if there are any, a hard surface is less likely to accumulate these pesky nuisances. 

If there are air-heating systems, read this and take note that you should change the filters often. They state that you should replace your filters every 90 days to make sure that they are not the source of spreading dust and allergens.

And the old-fashioned advice to open your windows is more important today than ever. Ventilation with fresh air is one of the best things we can do to combat Covid-19 and other airborne viruses.

Why is Fresh Air So Important?

Many people take air quality for granted. We know it’s important, but act as if it’s not crucial for maintaining overall good health. It is! 

Here are some important health benefits of clean air:

  • Taking steps to ensure that the air you breathe is as clean as possible will help you alleviate symptoms of allergies or asthma and improve wellbeing.
  • You’ll keep your lungs cleaner, making you less susceptible to lung-related diseases caused by the accumulation of dust or other particles. 
  • It will improve your digestion. Yes, you read it right, many people don’t know the importance of the respiratory system in the digestive process. You need clean oxygen in order for the digestive tract muscles to work properly, move, break and digest the food you take in.
  • Another system in your body that will benefit from the fresh air is the nervous system. Your brain will work better with fresh oxygen, and it will also lead to improved mood since the intake of oxygen is an important factor for serotonin production and uptake. 
  • Put simply as possible, it is highly important for a long and healthy life, breathing in better air may as well equal a longer life span. 

Using Air Purifiers

An air purifier is a device that works on removing contaminants from the air in order to improve indoor air quality. It has a system of internal fans that suck in the air, filter it, and circulate it back out, removing dust, bacteria, allergens, etc. There are more than a couple of reasons why you should think about getting one:

  • Indoor air is usually two to five times dirtier than outdoor, or even worse. So, using a purifier will ensure that you and your coworkers breathe cleaner air. 
  • These purifiers will also rid you of some unpleasant odors. 
  • They help with neutralizing smoke, and you know smoke smells. So, if you’re a smoker, or someone else in the household is, this may be one of the greatest upsides of the device. 
  • While there will always be dust accumulating in your workplace, the purifier will help by trapping dust particles to some extent. 
  • It will reduce the risk of spreading sickness and germs. So, if someone in the household catches the flu, it will be less likely to spread to others. 

There are widespread debates on global air pollution, helping the planet and ourselves by changing our habits that worsen the problem unnecessarily. While it would be lovely if the whole planet was as green and clean as we would like, it would be useful if we all started by at least working on our immediate environment and improve the air quality of the places where we spend the most time, our workplaces and homes. As they say, health is wealth, so let’s work on being healthier.