More than half of Brits worry about poor air quality in the workplace, study finds

Have you ever taken the time to consider if there are any deficiencies in the way your company approaches health and safety? Perhaps you’ve encountered an incident that didn’t prompt the response you expected?

We asked 2,000 adults about their workplace experiences, and some staggering revelations encouraged us to create our own quiz on the subject.

71 per cent of those polled said their desks are not configured properly, meaning they regularly suffer aches and pains.

More than half (55 per cent) openly complain about poor air quality, with many believing they often forgo breathing in fresh air for the entire day.

The survey has been commissioned by Andrews Air Quality, with one of our experts explaining: “There’s no doubt that health and safety protocol – and its implementation – varies from workplace to workplace.”

“And while there are lots of really obvious dangers that can befall you at work, like being in a busy warehouse environment, many risks are a lot more low-key.

“Things like not sitting at a properly-configured desk day in and day out, for example, can play havoc with your back.

“And air quality is also tremendously important, especially now we are in a world where Covid exists and fresh air is absolutely vital.”

The main cause of injury risk was deemed to be mental – overworked employees at risk of burnout (27 per cent).

Another 23 per cent regularly work around cables they believe could be a tripping hazard, while 19 per cent say they don’t get any natural light.

A further one in five have worked in places where spillages have not been cleaned up, and 15 per cent have seen plug sockets overloaded with electrical items.

One in four respondents confess to not knowing their company’s fire policy – and the same amount have reported a health hazard, only to see it ignored.

As many as three in 10 have actually quit a job because they felt it was too dangerous, according to the OnePoll.com data.

More than a tenth (13 per cent) of office workers report their office windows don’t open, depriving them of a fresh breeze.

And yet, 34 per cent believe the only ‘really dangerous’ workplaces are those in which manual labour or physical activity is undertaken as part of the job – not offices!

More than two thirds say offices are simply not dangerous workplaces at all.

A member of Andrews Air Quality’s technical team added: “The research shows there’s definitely some more education to be done in terms of dangers at work.

“Just because you’re not at risk of being run over by a forklift, doesn’t mean you can’t be at risk in other ways.

“All workplace managers should – especially as offices start to re-open – be working hard to ensure everyone’s safety.”

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