Indoor Air Cartoon Journal, July 2019, Volume 2, #67

There is a global rise in human stress level across ages. Humans are faced with psychological, physiological, biological, chemical, or physical stressors every day.  There is also a global rise in outdoor air pollution. Outdoor to indoor transport of air pollutants, coupled with indoor emissions, increases exposures in the indoor environment.

The increasing stressors and air pollutants exposures are increasing human risk of suffering from poor health and discomfort, especially those relating to sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms. Increase in stress level weakens immune systems that supposed to protect human against the harm caused by air pollutants while the increase in air pollutants increases the workload for the weakened immune systems.  Apart from health and discomfort, human performance and productivity can also be compromised.

Air pollutants source reduction and engineering solutions can be used to reduce risk, but the reduction of human stress will need more than engineering solutions. What can be done to reduce human stress?

Do you want to know more about this topic? Read Glaser and Klecolt-Glaser (2009) and Godbout and Glaser (2006) to know more about how weakened immune systems could increase vulnerability and risk of suffering from poor health and discomfort arising from air pollutants exposures.