INDOOR AIR QUALITY BEHAVIOUR
it has been found to re duce CO2 emissions from occupants.8
effects. Satish et al9 increasing the am bient CO2
If so, this
may be why both factors have such similar have recently shown that concentration
artifi cially can decrease performance, suggesting that ambient CO2
may have to
be regarded as a pollutant instead of as an indicator of a low outdoor air supply rate.
Magnitude
environme nt on performance? For adults, up to 5% in the laborato ry3 and up to 10% in the fi eld.2 For school children, it’s more than 20%.4
Q
It would seem so. Driver vigilance was found to be reduced by up to 30% by warmth in fi eld intervention experi ments lasting only one hour.10
Q
environmental quality (IEQ) to reduce performance? As staff costs per unit of fl oor area exceed operating costs by 100:1, the ef fects observed are seldom negligible.1
Q
young and healthy? We have found that their performance is more affected, not less. We believe that this is because children in school, by defi nition, are doing work that is new to them, while adult workers are usually very familiar with the work they do and are better able to cope with environmen tal effects that make their work more diffi cult.
Q
effects than offi ce work? We believe not, as most workers in modern factories have to interact with computers, just as offi ce workers do.
Q
practice? Many fi eld studies have found that the negative effects of poor working condi tions are greater in real workplaces than would have been predicted from
Q
www.cibsejournal.com Methodology
Does laboratory research really pre dict what happens in
Is factory work likely to be less af fected by thermal and IAQ
Surely, children are less affected than adults because they are
What are the estimated costs of al lowing poor indoor
Is work in transportation environments similarly affected?
labora tory experiments.2,5 This may be because laboratory experiments use paid subjects, who tend to exert more effort in the course of a necessarily brief laboratory exposure to poor IEQ than they would routinely experience in their workplace.
performance? If subjects are highly motivated they can sometimes maintain performance during short exposures to poor IEQ. Negative effects on fatigue may then be found instead. Additionally, some studies may have missed the subtle changes in perfor mance that are caused by slightly subop timal indoor environmental conditions.
Q
Logically, yes. Although environmen tal effects on component skills have yet to be validated as predictors of over- all productivity, call-center results use ‘bottom-line’ measures of the call vol ume achieved in practice,2,5 and school- work is what children do in school.4,11,12
Q
the performance of schoolwork indicate reduced learn ing? Not proven. But surely schoolwork is assumed by teachers to promote learning? Test scores used by teachers and regulators to observe progress in learn ing have been
Q May 2013 CIBSE Journal 37
Does a decrease in
Do performance tests really predict productivity?
Why do some laboratory experiments show no effects on
What is the magnitude of the nega tive effects of the indoor
ch adults ildren
ARE LESS AFFECTED THAN BECAUSE THEY ARE YOUNG AND HEALTHY?
dust
AFFECT PERFORMANCE? DOES
airborne
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