Office workers health threatened by toxic dangers

6/26/2012 10:02 AM EST

The health of office workers is being threatened by potentially dangerous substances emitted by carpets, furniture, paint and other items, according to a study of office workers. Researchers discovered a high level of polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in the blood of people working in a newly-decorated office in Boston, Massachusetts, in the USA. 

“The negative impact of low indoor air quality on the well-being, morale and productivity of office workers has been well charted, but worryingly this latest study provides the first link between poten- tially toxic chemicals in office air and in the blood of office workers,” said Johan Wennerström, head of R & D at Blueair, a leading premium air purifier manufacturer that champions clean indoor air as a basic human right. 

Mr. Wennerström noted that many organizations, enterprises and individuals remain blissfully unaware that the quality of indoor air today can be 100 times worse than the air they breathe outside on the street.

“The research undertaken by scientists at the American Chemical Society (ASC) is compelling. It showed office workers are being exposed to levels of so-called polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) that are 3 – 5 times higher than those of previous studies of household air,” Mr. Wennerström said.

“The findings underline the vital need for urgent action by national authorities to address the entire in- door air quality issue, a health area often overshadowed by concerns about the outdoor environment. What we find particularly worrying is that the results also suggested that workers in newly renovated office buildings may receive considerably higher doses of PFCs than workers in older buildings.”

The Boston study was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the results were published in the American Chemical Society’s publication ‘Environmental Science & Technology’.

Blueair in May 2012 called on the European Commission to implement a single European standard of the ‘Clean Air Delivery Rate’ (CADR) system used in the United States to measure the efficiency of indoor air cleaners. Blueair also earlier this year launched its ‘Clean Air is a human right’ aware- ness campaign, which is geared to place indoor air pollution in the spotlight due to growing scientific evidence of related health threats posed to children and adults.

“Health issues such as respiratory disease and heart disease are an immense problem plaguing people in every urban area around the world, yet relatively few people have been made aware of the potentially dangerous substances found in the air they are breathing indoors,” said Mr. Wenner- ström.