The key to choosing an air cleaner is to pick the right device for the size of the room.
Thebrain 9 installation portable#
Be wary if someone tells you the building’s ventilation system can’t be improved or that they’re using a new, unproven technology.Īllen notes that even adding a portable air cleaner with a HEPA filter to the center of the room can make a meaningful difference in offices with less-efficient ventilation systems. You also want to know if building managers have taken steps to increase outdoor air or added portable air cleaners to the space. In general, you want to hear that your building has upgraded its ventilation filters to at least a MERV 11 but preferably a MERV 13, which is an indicator of filtration efficiency. He added: “It has to be the new normal, not the exception, going forward.” “Healthy buildings,” he said, should not just be thought of as “something we do during COVID or a crisis.” “There is a newfound appreciation for how much the indoor environment influences our health,” Allen said. The good news is that many of the changes being made to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are the same improvements that need to be made to improve the overall air quality linked with cognitive function and worker productivity. But the pandemic has prompted many workplaces to take a closer look at indoor air quality. In the past, air-quality control in buildings has been mostly focused on energy efficiency and comfort, with little consideration given to infection control or overall worker health. “This study shows that the air you’re breathing at your desk at that moment has an impact on how well you think.” “This study looked at how several factors in the indoor environment have an immediate impact on our cognitive function and performance,” said Joseph Allen, director of the Harvard Healthy Buildings program and the study’s senior author. Although the effect wasn’t drastic, the findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the air we breathe affects brain health. The study found that workers in the buildings with the poorest indoor air quality tended to perform worse on the brain teasers. You can try the Stroop test yourself online at /chudler/words.html.) (The test asks you to name the color of the ink, but our brains want to read the word instead. The tests included simple math problems, as well as a tricky color and word brain teaser called the Stroop test, in which a word like “blue” or “purple” is printed in green or red ink. The workers were asked to use an app to take regular cognitive tests during the workday.
The scientists used monitors to measure ventilation and indoor air quality in the buildings, including levels of fine particulate matter, which includes dust and minuscule particles from smoking, cleaning products and outdoor air pollution that seeps into the building. The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, tracked 302 office workers in commercial buildings in six countries - the US, Britain, China, India, Mexico and Thailand - for 12 months. Because not only can the quality of your air influence the number of sick days you take each year, but it may even affect how well your brain works.Ī new study shows that poor indoor air quality is associated with subtle impairments in a number of cognitive functions, including our ability to concentrate and process information.
But indoor air quality is also something we should be talking about long after the pandemic ends. It’s a question many of us are now asking to protect ourselves from COVID-19.
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