How Indoor Air Pollution Affects Office Buildings

If you are a regular reader of our blog, you are already familiar with indoor air pollution. You may know that it affects over 90% of homes across the country, but did you know that it is also prevalent in commercial office space?

In fact, recent studies have found that indoor air pollution in offices is bad news for both the employer and the employee. Read below to learn about how poor indoor air quality can negatively impact your workplace, and what you can do to fix it.

How Can Indoor Air Pollution Affect Your Office?

Just like in our homes, indoor air pollution can be caused by a multitude of factors. Poor ventilation and air filtration can allow for high concentrations of dust, mold, pet dander, and chemicals emitted from cleaning products, building materials, and textiles. Indoor air pollution can affect office buildings in the following ways:

• Negatively impacts workers' health, leading to more sick days and lost work.
• Affects employee productivity; studies have shown that poor indoor air quality leads to less productive workers.
• Reduced energy-efficiency of some equipment, such as HVAC system.

What Can Employees Do To Improve Office Air Quality?

If you want to make an effort to improve the air quality of your office, here are some things you can do as an employee:

• Do not block air vents with your desk or personal items
• Smoke in designated areas only.
• Immediately clean up any spills and report all water leaks.
• Stop using air fresheners and perfumes at work, and only use all natural cleaning products.

What Can Office Managers Do To Improve Air Quality?

While every employee can take small steps to improve the air quality of their office, the property managers can make the biggest impact. Here are some things management can do to improve office air quality:

• Have your office tested for any indoor air quality issues.
• Avoid procedures and products that are known to cause IAQ problems.
• Leave windows and doors open whenever possible to maximize ventilation.
• Keep up with routine maintenance for your building's HVAC system.
• Have your air ducts professionally cleaned.

Did you know that contaminants such as pollen, dust, and animal dander could be hiding in your office's air ducts right now? Get them removed with a professional duct cleaning from GreenPro Cleaning & Restoration. We serve all homes and businesses across Long Island, and only use environmentally-preferred cleaning products and procedures. Call us today for a free quote at (631) 940-8100.