Understandably, there is now increased focus on the air and the ventilation systems of the commercial offices we work in. The importance of a building’s ventilation system has been thrown into sharp focus over the last two years and adequate, efficient ventilation is an effective weapon in the battle against covid.

But’s not just the coronavirus that ventilation helps protect workers against. Ventilation systems supply clean air to the office whilst removing old, stale, polluted air, keeping the quality of the air high, overall.

Now that office workers are returning, the levels of pollution in metropolitan and urban areas again become a concern, and whilst individuals cannot really control the quality of the air they breathe outside the office, there are ways to improve it inside.

In terms of productivity, workers who have poor air quality inside will not be working to the best of their ability – not to mention the cough and cold germs that will be circulating round – yet having the windows open for a natural air flow may not be suitable, in part because of the inconsistencies of British weather.

It would be practically impossible to have windows open all year round (imagine horizontal November rain coming straight in and drenching computers and work stations), and that’s assuming the air coming in was actually clean and unpolluted which is highly unlikely in an urban environment.

Assuming then, that an office ventilation system is working efficiently to remove stagnant air with fresh, there is also the question of how clean the fresh air coming in is. Air passing over rodent droppings, nests, bacteria, or mould that is stuck an unclean system could simply be circulated into the office, and the more efficient the system, the more efficiently these pollutants could be circulated. Basically, a clean ventilation system will do its job and a dirty one, no matter how efficient, will not.

According to HSE guidance on ventilation in the workplace, employers must, ‘ensure that every enclosed workplace is ventilated by a sufficient quantity of fresh or purified air’, and that ‘not only is it the law to provide sufficient fresh air, but studies have shown that good ventilation is associated with:

• improved health
• better concentration
• higher levels of satisfaction with an environment
• lower rates of absence from work
• better quality of sleep
• reduced exposure to a wide range of air pollutants’

So, it makes sense that regular cleaning by professional office cleaners should be a high priority for businesses.