What can we do to get the “good air” at the office?

What can we do to get the “good air” at the office?

From the aforementioned article, there are various factors that can affect the indoor air environment, both controllable and uncontrollable, directly and indirectly. Therefore, it may be easier for us to manage some factors to promote good air environment at our own house than to manage factors at the office, where in fact we spend most of our waking hours there. How can we ascertain the properness of indoor air management? As the office workers, what else can we do? Here are some of our advises.

Evaluate the situation first, whether there is any sign of problems like number of people prone to the risk of Sick Building Syndrome.

Observe the spots where we normally walk by to generally see if we can spot any irregularities or problems.

Report to the building management for any irregularities that are suspicious of initiating air pollutions, for them to take further investigations and solving actions.

Raise the concerns and seek investigations for quality of indoor air quality, as the proper maintenance of good indoor air quality requires the thorough cleaning of the air duct and air conditioning system at least every 2 year. As the tenant to any rental building space, we may negotiate the cost of such air duct cleaning maintenance with the premise owner. Some building management bears this maintenance cost, but some does not. However, it is highly recommended to evaluate the possible effects from the poor IAQ management on the staff long-term health, the productivity of the staffs and other medical expenses to support.

Promote the hygienic discipline among office colleagues.

•  At the pantry where food leftovers and trashes are mostly responsible by the main, the chance of air pollution risks definitely remains. In many cases, the washing schedule of the dishes may take once or twice during the day, meaning the pile of unwashed dish can trigger a poor hygiene.
• Tidy up office desk, and wipe clean computer, monitor, keyboard and telephone on a regular basis to prevent dust build-up. The piles and stacks of paper document are key dust collecting items.

        "The extract from the Independent News article reported the investigation in the UK with about 1,000 office workers and found that their office desks contain 400 times more germs than the toilet seat. About one fifth of the staffs admitted that they clean the desk           only once a month. The average desktop harbors 20,961 germs per square inch and that’s in addition to 3,295 on the keyboard and 1,676 on a mouse and a staggering 25,127 on the phone."

If you read until this line and feel that you are surprised with lots of unknown facts, we would say that there are many people out there who are just like you. Therefore, this indoor air quality is often overlooked and ignored from many cleaning schemes. It is important to raise awareness by seeking more information and sharing them across so that air pollution problem is under attention and hence better management. While you watch out for good foods and exercise, the key food to your body and mind like “good air” should never be overlooked.