A Solution to Mitigate the Impact of Indoor Air Pollution on Business Productivity

07 Oct 2021

Data from various studies conclude that air pollution is having an adverse impact on workforces—people are becoming less productive due to the negative impact. The businesses and organizations can reduce the impact by being conscientious and making positive changes in the office environment. 

Pure air is the best natural remedy to keep ourselves energetic, fresh, and enthusiastic while on the other side, the air polluted with particulate matter, smoke, and volatile organic compounds negatively impacts an individual’s productivity and efficiency.

A study, carried out by the National University of Singapore, shows that regular exposure to air pollution may cause a negative impact on employee's productivity. The study also reveals through evidence that high level of pollutants and toxins in the indoor air results in employees’ frequent illnesses and thereby absenteeism that directly impacts the company productivity and profitability.   

Another study, conducted jointly by Bain & Company and the American Chamber of Commerce in 2015 for Chinese cities, shows that more than 50% of American companies doing businesses in Chinese cities find it challenging to hire senior executives, with air pollution being the major culprit.

If the employees are exposed to polluted indoor air for a long period at workplaces, they frequently fall ill and in turn lead to reduced work force and company productivity. Moreover, air pollution also hurts investors’ mental acuity, and eventually reduces the source for raising funds for businesses. So, one can say without any doubt that the quality of air does impact the executive and organization performance adversely.

“Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.” -- Michael Jordan

What Businesses Can Do to Improve the Indoor Air Quality?

To combat the challenges caused by poor air quality, businesses need to find out a sustainable and effective solution that could help them offer a pure and healthy ambience for their employees.

Until some extensive pro-environment measures are strictly implemented by the government, businesses should think about using an advanced air purification system with the efficiency of 99.999% air filtration for the present.

While choosing an air treatment system for offices, some important technical specifications (especially air filtration technologies) need to be checked out thoroughly. As per a data published by NASA, HEPA filters are significantly more effective than other regular filters in trapping extremely high percentage of particles and pollutants.

Though an array of machines is available in the market, but a sub-standard air purifier for offices can never be an effective solution to poor air quality in offices. Conceivably, PetriMed CA™ Air Purification System is designed to meet businesses’ requirements on account of its unique technical configuration that comprises of 8-stage air filtration technology. It uses H-14 ISO 50U HEPA filter that captures particles as small as 0.1 microns by using Brownian principle.       

In addition to HEPA 14 filter, it further uses other filtration technologies like anti-bacterial nano silver pre-filter, carbon filter zeolite, UV-C, and ionizer to deactivate the effectiveness of 99.999% of toxins and pollutants that pass through the filter.        

Another recommended solution is to run an employee awareness program to educate the workforces to reduce their exposure to air pollution. Many people have little information about how the pollutants and toxins in the air are affecting their health and productivity. A small change in their day-to-day behaviour can help them stay healthy and productive.

Several businesses have adopted sustainable and innovative models to fight air pollution in their office premises. The threats to human resources due to poor air quality is mounting day by day—some concrete measures like using business air purifiers in the offices and providing regular training on pro-environmental behaviour to employees need to be implemented.