How Indoor Air Quality Affects Your Productivity

Bad indoor air quality is a bigger issue than most of us think. It zaps productivity and the worst part of it is: almost everyone is subject to its effects!

According to the CPSC¹, indoor air quality can be worse than the air in even the most polluted cities of the world. Now, consider that most of us spend about 90% of our time indoors and you've got all the right ingredients for a serious issue at home and at work.

Eat Well, Exercise... Breathe Well?

If you're health-minded, you already know that eating well and getting yourself to the gym are important. But how many of us think about the air we breathe? Unless we happen to pass by some unpleasant street odors, or something is "off" in our kitchen area... not too much. 

Bet for several decades now, the research on indoor air quality has been piling up. What does it all amount to? The quality of the air most of us breathe when we're inside is consistently and surprisingly bad.

And we're not just talking hazardous indoor pollutants like the VOCs from paint, cheap carpeting, and household cleaning materials. Sometimes even the slightest dip in indoor air quality can cause all kinds of issues.

A major drop in productivity is one of those issues.

Take a Look at the Science- Indoor Air Quality Directly Affects Productivity

We can look at the hard science from research on IAQ and productivity. Although most studies are carried out in offices, the same concept applies to your home: breathing air that's not clean and fresh makes you slower, duller, and pretty much lowers your productivity in every possible way. 

One study found that office workers subjected to poor perceived indoor air quality typed and performed calculations much slower than when the air was clean and fresh.²

This study also told us that productivity plummets even further when there's an odor present. Not all IAQ issues are detectable by odor, so you could have a problem and not even know it. Ready to take action? Visit our Air Purifiers page and see how you can tackle the ever-present problem of bad indoor air quality. 

References

• The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Retrieved 8/16/2016 from http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Safety-Education/Safety-Guides/Home/The-Inside-Story-A-Guide-to-Indoor-Air-Quality/
• Wargocki, Pawel, et al. Perceived Air Quality, Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) Symptoms and Productivity in an Office with Two Different Pollution Loads.Retrieved 8/16/2016 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0668.1999.t01-1-00003.x/full