If you have decided to reopen your business after the lockdown and ask your employees to come back to work, making sure that they are able to stay safe and healthy while working should be a top priority. But along with making it easy for employees and customers to social distance, providing face coverings, gloves and setting up hand-washing stations and sanitising materials, it’s also important to consider how the ventilation in your store or office space could be impacting your employees’ health at this time.
Here are some reasons to consider upgrading your business’ ventilation system before reopening.
Clean the Air
While it is believed that COVID-19 isn’t airborne, being indoors all day long around other people isn’t going to be very healthy for your employees. As the air is shared around, the risk of an employee contracting COVID-19 is greater, if another employee or a customer is infected. Because of this, a good ventilation system is a must for cleaning the air and allowing both your customers and employees to breathe easier.
Reduce VOCs
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are invisible gases that occur indoors and can have a serious impact on health. They tend to originate from a wide number of everyday products that may well be present at your business premises. For example, some common sources of VOCs include cleaning products, perfumes or even permanent markers which might be used on a regular basis by yourself and your employees in the workplace.
A good ventilation system will ensure that the air is cleaned of these gases and that they have a minimal impact on the health of your staff.
Eliminate Damp
Condensation and damp can not only cause serious problems to the structure and the interior of your business premises, but it can also lead to health problems for your employees as well. Any employees who suffer with respiratory problems such as asthma are likely to be the most worried about their health right now, and while damp and condensation won’t cause COVID-19, they can certainly worsen the symptoms of asthma and other respiratory health problems.
A good heat recovery system provides somewhere else for the excess moisture to go when the temperature inside your premises drops. Rather than migrating to the coldest areas like the windows, walls, and behind office furniture, it will be eliminated by the ventilation system.
Improve Productivity
Finally, a good by-product of having a good ventilation system installed by BPC Ventilation Ireland in your business premises is improved productivity. Right now, it’s understandable that while many employees want to return to work, they are feeling anxious about it and this might have an impact on how well they can do their jobs. By ensuring that the space they are working in is well-ventilated, you can reduce the impact of air pollutants on their health and put them at ease about spending their day in the same building as several other people.
A good ventilation system in your business premises will not only help to ease employee concerns about COVID-19, but also reduce the risk of air pollution and other related health risks.