Indoor air quality may affect and increase or lower workers’ productivity. It’s, therefore, vital to ensure your workplace air quality is ideal and doesn’t affect your employees’ health. This will help prevent your employees from taking regular breaks to seek medical intervention.
To help you, here are ways to ensure your workplace air is always of excellent quality and promotes good health and productivity:
Keep The Workplace Clean
The first step towards safeguarding workplace air quality is keeping the space clean. Whether or not you practice other measures to enhance the air quality in the office, if the area is untidy, everything you do might be in vain.
Ensure the floors, walls, and other surfaces are dust-free to prevent dust from accumulating.
Luckily, many professional cleaning companies are ready to do what they do best. If you’re based in North Texas, consider hiring Dallas commercial cleaning services for a professional touch.
Keep Off Harsh Cleaning Products
As much as you should keep your workplace clean, avoiding harsh cleaning products is vital. While cleaning detergents should be tough enough to kill harmful germs and bacteria, detergents with toxic ingredients can interfere with indoor air, making it dangerous for humans.
Toxic elements can circulate in the air, which may cause skin allergies, eye irritation, or sneezing.
To ensure the cleaning products are safe and can improve indoor air quality, ensure the detergents are certified and don’t contain toxic elements. You should also avoid mixing different detergents since they can react and develop toxicity.
Lastly, avoid cleaning the office while employees are in to lower the chances of inhaling detergents’ odor.
Establish A Strict Smoking Policy
Besides tobacco is harmful to the user, it can also affect the health of those who inhale the smoke. Additionally, smoking in the office can affect indoor air quality while increasing ventilation costs.
Since you might not be positioned to ask your employees to quit smoking, it’s vital to establish a strict smoking policy stipulating that no one is allowed to smoke in the office. However, for this to be practical, you should have specific rooms where workers can smoke freely.
Nevertheless, these rooms should be well-ventilated to prevent the smoke from circulating into other rooms.
Separate Air Pollutants From The Working Place
Several sources interfere with office air quality. For example, printers emit harmful chemicals that can pose a health hazard.
Bathrooms, too, can interfere with the office air quality since they’re ideal zones for mold and mildew growth. Once the mold is exposed to the air, it can cause respiratory issues and allergies.
Also, stored cleaning products can release toxic chemicals that might contaminate the air.
With these in mind, separating these areas from the rest of the workplace might be helpful. For example, you can have these rooms located outside the offices or at the other end of the building and ensure the ventilation is in perfect working condition.
Invest In Quality Air-Cleaning Devices
Quality air-cleaning devices such as air scrubbers, air purifiers, and dehumidifiers are also great for improving workplace air quality. These devices are affordable, easy to use, and eradicate the need to hire professionals to purify indoor air.
Assess The Air Quality Regularly
Assessing your workplace air provides accurate information on air quality. After which, you can put more effort towards improving the air. The air quality you should conduct includes assessing the airflow, mold, mildew growth, ventilation, and humidity levels, among other tests.
Replace HVAC Filters Regularly
HVAC system plays a huge role in ensuring excellent indoor air quality. However, you should have it cleaned regularly for efficiency.
Besides cleaning the entire system, replacing the filters from time to time is vital. With time, HVAC filters collect dust, dirt, and debris. Once they become clogged, they stop functioning efficiently, allowing pollutants to contaminate the indoor air.
Clean Spills Immediately
Mold and mildew thrive under wet conditions. When they grow, they’re difficult to erase and increase the chances of developing respiratory illnesses. To prevent mold and mildew from contaminating your workplace air, ensure the space is always dry.
Educate the employees about the importance of working in a dry area and why they should dry spills immediately. Suppose you have indoor plants. It would be best to have the spill from watering cleaned and dried promptly.
Conclusion
Workplace air quality is among the vital workplace safety aspects you should prioritize. Poor indoor air quality can cause respiratory illnesses, resulting in frequent absenteeism. As a result, your employees’ productivity will likely reduce, leading to losses.
Fortunately, improving workplace air quality is easier than it sounds. With the help of the above-discussed tips, you can increase your workplace air quality by a considerable margin.