4 Steps To Improving Air Quality In The Office

Updated on: August 1, 2024

You may know this already but indoor air quality has a direct impact on one’s well-being, health, and productivity. In general, humans tend to spend a lot of time indoors – whether it’s staying at home, or working in the office –, so having clean air, free of health-threatening pollutants, flowing inside the workplace can significantly improve your and your co-workers’ ability to successfully complete all the necessary tasks.

Monitoring the air quality inside the office can help to reduce the risk of developing respiratory illnesses and other chronic disorders, as well as improving the overall health, and working capacity.

What is air quality monitoring?

Air quality monitoring is a process of checking the levels of certain air pollutants, such as CO2, to make sure the air you breathe inside the building is safe and clean. This type of monitoring helps to regularly evaluate the pollution levels, so people know when it’s time to ventilate the rooms, letting fresh and clean air inside.

Why is CO2 considered so dangerous?

Amongst other air pollutants, CO2 or carbon dioxide is considered very dangerous because its saturation indoors can cause the loss of oxygen, which results in fatigue, drowsiness, headaches, and loss of concentration. In other words, when your body doesn’t get enough oxygen, it slowly shuts down, making you lose proper functionality and mostly affecting your brain.

People exhale carbon dioxide, so in more crowded places, like the office, CO2 levels are much higher. Normal CO2 levels indoors should be around 400-1,000 ppm. When CO2 indicators pass these levels, complaints about headaches, sleepiness, poor concentration, loss of attention, and increased heart rate might start.

Going back to the office in the middle of the pandemic

As the world is slowly transitioning out of the lockdown and more people are starting to work back in real offices, it’s only expected that people are going to be concerned about working closely with other individuals in fear of becoming infected.

However, keeping the 6 feet distance between one another isn’t enough to completely protect the co-workers, as the infected person could be completely blind to the fact that it is infected.

Keeping in mind that viruses and many different microorganisms are transmitted by aerosols in the air, regular and quality air ventilation is vital in the midst of the pandemic. That’s why it should be employers’ number one priority to make sure that air quality levels are always at their best.

How to control and improve air quality in the office?

Now, that we’ve established the importance of air quality indoors, let’s look at the possible steps that can help to improve it in your office!

1. Monitor CO2 levels in the workplace

As mentioned before, air quality, especially CO2 levels, monitoring in the office, where you and your co-workers spend the biggest part of the day, is super-important. This is where Luxafor’s CO2 Monitor comes in handy!

Luxafor CO2 Monitor

This compact and easy-to-use device analyzes the air quality in a particular room and, using alarm-like signals, notifies you when it requires ventilation, significantly reducing the risk of CO2 saturation in the building and helping you avoid the risk of getting aerosol-transmitted infections.

The ways this amazing device helps you maintain the best possible room conditions are simple:

It lets you know when is the time to ventilate the room, reducing the risk of spreading infection, or losing concentration, by making a sound and flashing lights;
It monitors not only the quality of the air inside the room but also other very important indicators, such as the room temperature and humidity, ensuring that the conditions in the room are ideal for productive work;
It gives you super-precise measurements with accurate information on air quality with a 5-minute refresh rate, so you could always feel safe about the environment you’re working in.

The device is small and portable, making any needed room’s monitoring effortless. Its user-friendly interface also makes it easy to understand for anyone, so you and your team can always feel and stay safe during working hours, achieving better results in the long run.

Luxafor CO2 Monitor is an excellent solution for any company that is looking for ways to boost their team’s long-term work efficiency because healthy and happy employees that work in a pleasurable and suitable environment are more productive, increasing the overall success of the company at the same time.

2. Get a good ventilation system

After monitoring the air quality in the workspace, the next step is installing and maintaining a good ventilation system that will help reduce CO2 levels. The way these systems work is by bringing in fresh outdoor air that dilutes the CO2 concentration in the office and makes it less concentrated, keeping the indoor carbon dioxide within safe levels.

In fact, studies have shown that participants who were breathing more fresh air did significantly better in decision-making performance amongst other participants. So businesses should definitely make some steps towards the optimization of their air quality to make their employees’ productivity skyrocket.

3. Open your window

If it’s not possible for you to get a high-quality ventilation system, you should at least get in some fresh air by ventilating the room manually. The easiest way to do it is by opening a window. Simple methods like these will let the carbon dioxide escape from the room.

Though, getting towards the darker and colder season of the year, you definitely don’t want to leave your window open all the time but how will you know when is the time to ventilate the office? Exactly – we’re still coming back to the air quality monitors, *wink-wink*!

4. Get an oxygen-producing plant

Plants are an amazing office decor that can boost anyone’s mood just by looking at it. But did you know that they are also great air purifiers? So, just adding an oxygen-producing and air-cleaning plant into your office area is another way to dilute the CO2 concentration, increasing not only the air quality but also your employees’ productivity by boosting their mood and overall well-being.

Plants like Snake Plant, Areca Palm, Peace Lily, and others can perform both functions of looking nice and cleaning the air, removing toxic substances like benzene, formaldehyde, and xylene from the air, as well as producing more oxygen for you and your co-workers to breathe.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, monitoring the air quality in the workplace is vital when it comes not only to your and your co-workers’ productivity levels but also to a health hazard reduction. There are many different ways to get cleaner air in the office, avoiding the possibility of carbon dioxide saturation in more crowded places, like at work.

But it is more important to know when is the time for ventilation. And that you can do only by getting an air quality monitoring device. So check out our Luxafor CO2 Monitor and improve the many aspects of productivity in your office as well!

LUXAFOR HELPS PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE THEIR GREATEST PRODUCTIVITY LEVELS WITH A WIDE VARIETY OF OFFICE PRODUCTS. LET’S BE PRODUCTIVE TOGETHER!

Do you want to build and maintain new habits? Get your free PDF version of the Don't Break The Chain calendar and start today!

download pdf now

Do you want to build and maintain new habits? Get your free PDF version of the Don't Break The Chain calendar and start today!

download pdf now

Author's Bio

Jessica Chapman is a writing editor from Chicago who enjoys traveling. She works with Australian Writings, and if you need programming assignment help, she is the best person you can ask. She is also into politics and sports.

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4 Steps To Improving Air Quality In The Office

What is air quality monitoring?

Why is CO2 considered so dangerous?

Going back to the office in the middle of the pandemic