Page 26 - Climate Control News Magazine Feb 2020

Indoor Air Quality Feature
Research examines impact of office humidity on staff stress
WHILE IT IS common knowledge that humidi- ty can have an impact on our hair and skin, a new study has found it can also affect stress lev- els in the office.
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Arizona found that rela- tive humidity levels in an office setting can have an impact on stress and potentially even sleep quality. The research was published re- cently in the journal Indoor Air.
According to Dr Bijan Najafi, professor in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor and director of clinical research in the di- vision of vascular surgery and endovascular therapy, the relationship between office humidi- ty levels and health can cost employers in terms of productivity and sick leave.
He and fellow researchers wanted to under- stand the impact that relative humidity has on health and well-being in real-world conditions.
The study is part of the “Wellbuilt for Wellbe- ing” project, funded by the United States General Services Administration and led by principal in- vestigator, Dr Esther Sternberg, director of the UArizona Institute on Place, Wellbeing, & Per- formance and research director of the Andrew Weil Centre for Integrative Medicine at the UAri- zona Health Sciences.
“It has been exciting to work on this project that is providing the evidence for design of healthy office spaces with the potential to affect the lives of mil- lions of office workers and beyond,” Sternberg said.
“This is the future of integrative health – to design and operate buildings that support health and well-being.”
Researchers gathered data from 134 individu- als from four federal buildings across the coun- try. Participants completed questionnaires on demographics, medical history and measures of actual and perceived stress and comfort as well as the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.
They wore a chest sensor that monitors heart rate and physical activity for three consecutive work days and two nights.
Researchers also took continuous measure- ments of relative humidity at the workplace based on the 30 to 60% range for thermal comfort estab- lished by the American Society of Heating, Refrig- erating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Standard 55-1989 and tracked participants’ proximity to the relative humidity measures using calendar in- formation, recorded logs and floor plan coding.
They categorized participants into three groups based on the range in which the majori- ty of their relative humidity measurements fell:
Relative humidity levels in the office setting can impact stress, and even sleep quality.
1. Dry – less than 30% relative humidity
2. Comfort - between 30 and 60% relative hu-
midity
3. Humid – more than 60% relative humidity
Researchers found that participants in the dry and humid group experienced 25% and 19% higher stress responses, respectively, compared to those in the comfort-humidity group.
The stress response data also suggests the potential for an optimal range for relative hu- midity, even narrower than the current stand- ard. Researchers also found an indirect rela- tionship between relative humidity and objectively measured sleep quality.
HEALTHY FILTERS
While ambient air quality has steadily improved over the years, homes and buildings should still be outfitted with air filters to ensure indoor air is healthy.
A growing body of literature suggests that air filters may not be the only preventative measure to take, for example a study conducted at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found that healthy non-smoking individuals who took vitamin B supplements almost reversed any harmful effects of exposure to polluted air on their immune and cardiovascular function.
While it has yet to be determined if the results of this study can be replicated, it’s nevertheless worth considering, given the dangers of poor air quality on public health.
“Long-term exposure to ultrafine particles can induce respiratory and cardiovascular diseases,” according to Mark Davidson, manager of marketing & technical materials at Camfil in the United States.
“Below PM2.5, particles are more harmful because they penetrate deeper into the lung alveoli. They cross blood vessels walls, diffuse into the blood circulation to reach and affect organ function (heart, liver, brain, and endocrine system).” While the study are is important in the field of medical science, it doesn’t mean that vitamin B can be considered a wonder supplement against the effects of air pollution.
A clean air filter lying on top of a used, dirty one.
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