Many factors can affect workplace performance, including the employee’s ability to use their skills effectively in a team environment or how well a manager leads them. Another one that is receiving attention lately and is much less obvious is the quality of the air that we breathe. Previous studies have proven that pollution has detrimental effects on physical health. But only in the past year or two have researchers been studying and starting to understand the effects of poor air quality on daily mental functioning.
Poor air quality decreases an employee’s ability to concentrate and increases their feelings of anxiety and stress, all of which can negatively impact their productivity over time. An employee may find it difficult to pay attention during normal staff meetings or may take longer to finish tasks that they have done many times before, all because the poor air is causing them difficulties. Therefore, a person’s workplace may actually be hindering their ability to perform to their fullest potential.
Read More: The Growing Impact of Air Pollution on Mental Health
Understanding Pollution in the Workplace Context
The pollutants, both in particulate and gas form, that enter our bodies while working (whether it be on-site or in an office) are referred to as workplace air pollution.
- Outdoor air pollution consists primarily of pollution created through burning and highways, and thus it consists of very small particles that are known as fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), ozone (O₃), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), etc.
- Indoor air pollution is primarily particulate matter from outdoor air pollution, but it also includes the carbon dioxide (CO₂) from insufficiently vented bathrooms, as well as the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that come from construction materials and cleaning supplies and computer-related activities.
Inhalation is the most common method for the entrance of these pollutants into the human body. For example, PM2.5 can be so small that it can go directly into the bloodstream and then travel to the brain. This can result in an inflammatory response in the brain and may lead to other negative changes affecting cognition and mood.
Read More: How Stress Affects the Brain and Behaviour?
Effects on Cognitive Performance
The association between air pollution and productivity in terms of cognitive function has become apparent as various studies have shown that many components of pollutants (specifically PM2.5) can cross the blood-brain barrier and create an environment for neuroinflammatory processes to develop. This creates oxidative stress that damages neurons and changes the way neurotransmitters perform. All of these contribute to impairments in cognitive performance such as memory, focus, processing speed and making decisions. In practical terms, this may look like increased difficulty concentrating on complex documents, slower responses to emails or reduced accuracy in decision-heavy tasks.
Long-term exposure to air pollution has been associated with anxiety and depression (Braithwaite et al., 2019). Repeated occurrences of inflammation may disrupt neural pathways involved with mood and executive function. This helps explain why polluted environments can reduce focus, slow reaction time and heighten irritability even in otherwise healthy adults.
A multi-country longitudinal study of office workers found that higher indoor PM2.5 concentrations and lower ventilation (assessed via CO₂ levels) were associated with slower response times and reduced accuracy on cognitive tests (Cedeño-Laurent et al., 2021). Similarly, classic controlled experiments in simulated “green” versus conventional office environments demonstrated that better ventilation, lower CO₂ and fewer VOCs led to dramatically higher cognitive scores. Participants in green environments scored up to 101% higher on complex decision-making and problem-solving tasks compared with conventional settings (Allen et al., 2016). These results mean that even without overt symptoms of illness, employees in polluted or poorly ventilated spaces may be slower, less accurate and more prone to errors, all of which lower productivity.
Supporting the findings from indoor studies, broader research has linked ambient air pollution with reduced cognitive function in adults. Using data from adult brain-training performance, La Nauze and Severnini (2021) found that exposure to PM2.5 impairs cognitive skills across a range of tasks, particularly for adults in prime working age. The findings show that air pollution negatively affects laboratory-tested cognition, but also how cognitive performance relates to tasks in everyday work.
Additional examples of how air pollution’s impact can be felt outside of extreme events (wildfires, smoke events, etc.), are due to small variations in air quality each day. Even modest increases in pollution levels may result in employees feeling unusually distracted, irritable or mentally fatigued during otherwise routine workdays. Researchers found that both short-term exposure to particulate matter had a detrimental effect on selective attention and emotional recognition in healthy participants – illustrating that everyday pollutant exposures may lead to impaired focus in the workplace and reduce an employee’s social abilities for group projects (Faherty et al., 2025). This has profound implications for the quality of work in environments with routine pollution exposures.
Read More: What is cognitive health? Understand its role in our lives
Link with Mental Health Challenges
Pollution affects our mood, stress levels, depression, anxiety, etc. While research regarding these associations comes primarily from studies conducted with population-level health data, it is highly relevant to the mental health of workers as well. Chronic exposure to air pollutants causes an increase in mood disorders among older adults, especially via increased depressive symptoms and sleep problems, which further reduces their cognitive function and therefore decreases their work performance (Singh et al., 2024).
Many previously published literature reviews indicate that long-term exposure to air pollutants increases the chance of developing mood disorders, possibly through neuroinflammatory pathways that affect brain function over time (Braithwaite et al. 2019).
The Economic Case for Cleaner Air
Pollution affects productivity not only through cognition and mood, but also via absenteeism and overall labour productivity declines. Large-scale microdata analyses by Dechezleprêtre and Vienne (2025) show that a 1 μg/m³ increase in PM2.5 causes approximately a 0.55% reduction in labour productivity in the same year, based on data from over 2.5 million firms across Europe. This effect arises because higher pollution correlates with increased illness and reduced cognitive performance, which both lower overall output.
At an organisational level, this may manifest as delayed project timelines, increased error rates or higher absenteeism, all of which carry measurable economic costs. The work of several other economists supports the assertion that air pollution causes workers to be less productive, even at pollution levels traditionally considered “acceptable” under regulatory standards (Neidell & Pestel, 2023).
Impact on Workers
Short-term exposure to poor air quality can immediately affect performance. Studies show that even small fluctuations in PM2.5 levels can lead to a decrease in attention capacity and changes in a person’s emotional state within a few hours of exposure (Faherty et al., 2025). Most employees become mentally exhausted and foggy, making it difficult to focus. For example, workers may find it harder to follow lengthy discussions, maintain attention in the afternoon or complete tasks that normally require sustained concentration.
Breathing polluted air over a long period slowly affects their mental state. People who work in areas with consistently bad air often end up feeling more on edge, sleeping poorly and becoming more vulnerable to depression. Several studies have also noted that when people are exposed to pollutants for years, their ability to think clearly drops, their mood doesn’t lift as easily, and their overall productivity tends to slip (Singh et al., 2024). All of this basically shows that the air we’re surrounded by, both day to day and over the long run, has a real impact on how well we function at work.
Work Settings Most at Risk
Physical characteristics of some workplaces create a greater risk for higher exposure. Offices located on busy streets, near factories or near construction sites will have higher levels of PM2.5 contamination than offices located in a clean environment. Manufacturing plants, warehouses and factories can experience frequent VOC and particulate exposure from machinery and materials. Even some of the cleanest indoor work locations, such as call centres and academic offices, have been found to contain elevated concentrations of CO₂ because they do not have adequate ventilation to help prevent its accumulation.
Employees in such environments may report feeling unusually tired or mentally dull by the end of the day, despite performing largely sedentary work. Studies that have compared indoor pollution levels across diverse types of workplaces have consistently shown that buildings located in areas with heavy traffic or poor ventilation systems pose a greater cognitive and mood-related risk for employees (Cedeño-Laurent et al., 2021).
The transition to remote work has altered the patterns of employee exposure in ways that are frequently difficult to predict. Employees who live in an area that has commercial and industrial manufacturing nearby, along with high levels of outdoor air pollution, are likely to breathe lower-quality air in their homes compared to those working in an office building because of the use of air filtration systems, which eliminate and purify pollutants from indoor air.
Furthermore, employees living in greener and less densely populated parts of a city tend to have higher overall clarity and positivity of their moods when working from home compared to employees working in a heavily polluted outdoor environment. Studies demonstrating a strong association between ambient PM2.5 concentrations and cognitive performance (La Nauze & Severnini, 2021) support the conclusion that the quality of a person’s home will likely influence what level of performance they achieve during their remote employment. This makes air-quality considerations relevant for flexible and hybrid work policies.
Practical Steps to Take
1. Improving indoor air quality
A lot of offices don’t realise how much difference basic airflow can make. Bringing in more fresh air, using HEPA filters, and cutting back on things that release fumes like strong cleaning products, certain office machines, or materials that give off VOCs can help the space feel lighter and easier to work in. What’s interesting is that studies have actually measured this. When ventilation is bumped up and VOCs are kept low, people tend to think more clearly and stay more comfortable throughout the day. Their performance on tasks that require focus also improves (Allen et al., 2016).
2. Actively Monitor Air Quality
Another thing that actually helps is just keeping track of the air inside the office. It doesn’t have to be complicated — a couple of small sensors can check PM2.5 and CO₂ levels throughout the day. That way, you actually know when the air starts slipping instead of guessing. For instance, detecting a rise in CO₂ levels during peak office hours can prompt timely ventilation adjustments before cognitive fatigue sets in.
3. Support employee well-being
Poor air can really mess with how people feel. Some days it makes you more stressed, some days you’re just weirdly tired or unable to stay focused. So even small bits of support from the workplace can actually make a difference. It could be anything small, maybe making mental-health support easier to reach, or letting people start a bit later on days when the air outside is just awful.
Read More: Employee well-being for the changing workplace
4. Advocate for cleaner practices
cleaner air isn’t just an office issue. Bigger changes matter too, cutting down emissions, encouraging cleaner energy, and planning cities so people aren’t constantly surrounded by traffic fumes. These long-term steps help improve the air not just at work, but for everyone.
5. Building Design and Ventilation are Important
The physical structure of buildings has a great deal to do with the way we are exposed to pollutants. A poor ventilation system in buildings greatly increases how much CO2 or VOCs accumulate in the air, while it reduces the function of the brain, which causes more time to react, and makes it more difficult to complete tasks (Cedeño-Laurent et al. 2021).
Older heating and cooling systems, sealed windows, and the lack of outdoor air flow allow for the continued presence of pollutants. Conversely, having the ability to open windows for cross-ventilation, utilising effective filtration and establishing airflow patterns in buildings are good ways to positively affect employees’ ability to think clearly and to make better decisions (Allen et al. 2016).
6. Simple Steps Workers Can Do
- Avoid sitting close to printers or busy corridors where particulates accumulate.
- Check the AQI before commuting or outdoor breaks.
- If the AQI is high, consider wearing an appropriate mask with high filtration capabilities or take breaks outside of very high AQI, when possible. These small actions do add up.
These small adjustments may lead to noticeable improvements in clarity, mood and sustained attention throughout the workday.
Read More: Improving Workplace Satisfaction, Motivation and Productivity Using Positive Psychology
Why This Matters Now
The air quality of the environment where we work can actually have a much larger effect on our day-to-day life than most people realise. Putting some effort into setting up and maintaining clean air policies shows employees that organisations really do care about their employees’ well-being and health.
Having a clean air policy in place is one of the best methods to improve the overall performance of an organisation. An employee with improved health, productivity and engagement will produce greater value for the organisation than an employee who doesn’t participate in these actions. With pollution still being a global issue, it’s essential to remain alert to it for the sake of creating healthy, productive employees, prepared for any future challenges.
References +
Allen, J. G., MacNaughton, P., Satish, U., Santanam, S., Vallarino, J., & Spengler, J. D. (2016). Associations of cognitive function scores with carbon dioxide, ventilation, and volatile organic compound exposures in office workers: A controlled exposure study of green and conventional office environments. Environmental Health Perspectives, 124(6), 805–812. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1510037
Cedeño-Laurent, J. G., Allen, J. G., Spengler, J. D., et al. (2021). Acute effects of fine particulate matter and carbon dioxide on cognitive performance in office workers: A multicountry longitudinal prospective study. Environmental Research Letters. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210909123919.htm
Dechezleprêtre, A., & Vienne, V. (2025). The impact of air pollution on labour productivity: Large-scale micro evidence from Europe. OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers. OECD Publishing. https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/368257/files/2025-02.pdf
Faherty, T., et al. (2025). Short-term exposure to particulate pollution impairs selective attention and emotional recognition. Nature Communications. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/06/air-pollution-affects-peoples ability-to-focus-on-everyday-tasks-study-finds
La Nauze, A., & Severnini, E. R. (2021). Air pollution and adult cognition: Evidence from brain training. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 28785. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/368257/files/2025-02.pdf
Neidell, M. P., & Pestel, N. (2023). Air pollution and worker productivity. IZA World of Labour. Institute of Labour Economics. https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/368257/files/2025-02.pdf
Shaw, S., Kundu, S., Chattopadhyay, A., & Rao, S. (2024). Indoor air pollution and cognitive function among older adults in India: A multiple mediation approach through depression and sleep disorders. BMC Geriatrics, 24, Article 81. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-024-04662-6
Braithwaite, I., Zhang, S., Armstrong, B., & Kirkbride, J. B. (2019). Air pollution (PM2.5) and depression and anxiety symptoms in adults: A systematic review. Environmental Health Perspectives. (Review of studies linking air pollution to mental health outcomes.) https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/368257/files/2025-02.pdf
