Study: Poor Air Quality Linked to Workers' Low Cognitive Function

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—People working in well-ventilated buildings with below-average indoor air pollution and low carbon dioxide, levels showed better cognitive functioning than workers in "non-green" offices with typical pollutant and CO₂ levels, according to a recent study published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

"These results suggest that even modest improvements to indoor environmental quality may have a profound impact on the decision-making performance of workers," wrote lead author Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment. 

The study of 24 people exposed to different indoor environmental quality conditions over six full work days found that participants' cognitive scores were on average 61% higher on days working in buildings with low pollution levels than on days working in a conventional building. When lowered CO₂ levels were coupled with lower pollutants in buildings, cognitive scores were 101% higher than in conventional buildings.