Workplace Productivity
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported, “The issue having the greatest risk to human health is indoor air pollution. Indoor air can often be up to 100 times more polluted than the air in the out-of-doors. It is estimated that 25 million people are negatively affected by indoor air pollution. The effect has been measured in medical costs and lost productivity – $65 billion – the annual expense absorbed by American business!”
The EPA offers a publication titled, Office Building Occupant’s Guide to Indoor Air Quality. The first question posed in this publication, “Why is Indoor Air Quality Important?” Here is the introduction to the cued response:
“Indoor air quality is a major concern to businesses, building managers, tenants, and employees because it can impact the health, comfort, well being, and productivity of building occupants.”
On the EPA website there is a section titled, An Introduction to Indoor Air Quality1. The documentation recognizes that there are three basic strategies to improve indoor air quality: Source Control; Improved Ventilation; and Air Cleaners. Here is what is said about Source Control:
“Usually the most effective way to improve indoor air quality is to eliminate individual sources of pollution or to reduce their emissions.” Further, “ . . . Source control is also a more cost-efficient approach to protecting indoor air quality than increasing ventilation because increasing ventilation can increase energy costs.”
The pollutants to be managed have been identified and categorized by the EPA with the first pollutant seldom a factor in today’s workplace. The pollutants are: smoke from tobacco products; toxic off-gases emanating from building accoutrements, furnishings, finishes; toxic off-gases produced by the dissipation of cleaning chemicals and pesticides; exhaust emissions from motorized vehicles in garages and loading docks.
Long after the toxic off-gases have fully dissipated from an office building’s accoutrements, furnishings, and finishes – pesticides and cleaning chemicals will continue to be used and if these materials are volatile and produce toxic off-gases, indoor air quality will continue to be negatively impacted.
Researchers associated with numerous prestigious institutions such as Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Harvard School of Public Health, and MS/UT Health Science Center – have identified correlations between certain pesticides and diseases such as breast cancer, leukemia, and autism.
For the first time, the association between Parkinson’s disease and exposure to pesticides has been demonstrated in patients with this neurological disorder. The disorder typically develops in later life resulting in symptoms such as tremors and muscle rigidity.1
Cambridge scientists are advocating additional research into the little understood links between environmental pollution and type 2 diabetes. The research will focus on the possible link between persistent organic pollutants (POPs, a group which includes many pesticides) and insulin resistance, which can lead to adult onset diabetes.2
The EPA, pesticide formulators, pest control companies, pest controllers, and the public-at-large all believed that pesticides such as DDT, chlordane, diazinon, and dursban were reasonably safe as these pesticides were intended to be used. Apparently we were all wrong! Today, none of these pesticides are available as sprayable formulations that can be used in or around homes and offices!
The Congress of the United States found that personal injuries and illnesses arising out of work situations impose a substantial burden upon, and are a hindrance to, interstate commerce in terms of lost production, wage loss, medical expenses, and disability compensation payments. As a result of these Congressional findings, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 19704 was established.
The “General Duty” clause associated with the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 reads, “(a) Each employer (1) shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees; (2) shall comply with occupational safety and health standards promulgated under this Act. (b) Each employee shall comply with occupational safety and health standards and all rules, regulations, and orders issued pursuant to this Act which are applicable to his own actions and conduct.”
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is but an example of how parity in the workplace between employers and employees has evolved. Conscientious employers as well as their employees want their workplace to perpetuate good health and a sense of well-being and all benefit as a result of improved productivity; to this end, Environmental Coalition Incorporated has been dedicated for more than 16 years!
Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc. and CoreNet Global conducted a survey that queried 2,300 commercial real estate directors on four continents. It was ascertained that 90 percent of the survey’s respondents said sustainability such as the LEED certification maintained by the U.S. Green Building Council is a critical concern today or will be within the next three years. Sustainability or sustainable development is a pattern of resource-use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future. Sustainability lends itself to the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources — energy, water, and materials — while nullifying the causes that negative impact human health and well-being in the interior environment.
1 http://www.epa.gov/iaq/is-imprv.html#Source%20Control
2 The research team from Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC) and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Morris K. Udall Parkinson Disease Research Center of Excellence (Miami, FL, USA)
3 Environmental pollution and diabetes: A neglected relationship, 25 January 2008 edition of The Lancet, University of Cambridge.
4 http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=OSHACT&p_id=2743
