Hidden toll of air pollution on office workers

In a new paper, economists and public health researchers have found that not even working indoors in an office can protect people from the deleterious impacts of polluted air and particularly fine particulate pollution — defined as tiny particles that can travel deep into our lungs and even get into the bloodstream and eventually reach the central nervous system.

The study, released this week as a white paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, profited from the cooperation of a large Chinese travel firm, Ctrip International, which shared data on its workers’ performance with the researchers. It was conducted by Tom Chang of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

“Our analysis reveals a statistically significant, negative impact of pollution on the productivity of workers at the firm,” the researchers wrote. “A 10-unit increase in the air pollution index decreases the number of daily calls handled by a worker by 0.35 percent on average. To our knowledge, these results are the first evidence of an effect of pollution on white-collar labor.”

It was already know that workers outdoors suffer badly from the effects of air pollution, Chang says. What was new was to extend the finding to workers in the knowledge and service economy, whose indoor job settings might lead one to think that they’re insulated.

“We did the outdoor workers first, and then we moved into blue collar work, and now we’re into white collar work,” says Chang. “One thing is that, each step of the way, the magnitude of the effects has gone down. It affects blue collar workers more than it affects white collar workers.”

Nonetheless, the finest-sized pollution particles are more than capable of getting indoors. And accordingly, the study still found significant effects from particulate air pollution on indoor workers — and that economically, such impacts could be very consequential.

“Even though the size of the effect has gone down, when it comes to the value of what they contribute to, let’s say, GDP, it gets higher and higher,” Chang says.

“Think about your job,” he says. “Would your productivity be affected if you had a slightly scratchy throat, your nose was running, your eyes were watering, the entire day? That’s the idea here.”

What is most striking is that the researchers suggest that the collective toll of air pollution on the economy could be dramatic.