Here's an interesting snippet I came across :
OFFICE SMOG
"You might have paused to worry about the ozone that old fax
machines puff out, but have you ever thought about the dust storms
of dead skin, crumbling cosmetics, scalp creatures, hair yeasts,
and foot fungi that our office colleagues create? Not to mention
dust mites' debris.
David Bodanis, a social theory lecturer at Oxford University, warns
that vacuuming office carpets flings up colonies of microscopic
dust mites living there. The mites' anal pellets shatter as they
get pulled into the vacuum cleaner, only to be propelled as
fragments into the air. The pellets contain digestive enzymes from
teh mites' guts, which can irritate many workers' eyes and
lungs.
What's more, your fellow workers are constantly sloughing off bits
of their bodies, says Bodanis, the author of The Secret Garden and
The Secret House. Cosmetics crumble and talc slabs tear off and
float loose. Nail polish evaporates and clothing fibers scrape
away. We bring other things into the office from home : soil
fragments, bits of pet fur, broken-off leaf hairs, and large
numbers of tiny-amputated insect limbs.
We shed many thousands of skin flakes a minute. Sweat particles and
leftover soap fragments work through small gaps in our clothes.
Then there are scalop creatures, hair yeasts, and often even foot
and other fungi. There is also all the stagnant carbon dioxide we
breathe out, as well as the sterams of methane and hydrogen
sulphide bubbles we vent. Heat from our blood vessels provides
constant gusts of warm air that rise from our bodies, lifting
chunks of clothing, skin, and cosmetics up to ceiling height.
We eject, on average, about two-and-a-half saliva droplets per
word, so a few hours of cross-desk chatting at a steady 30 words
per minute sling out 15,000 droplets per person. These may spend an
hour or more bobbing around before sinking. A number will have more
dangerous types of staphylococci, and if there's been a sneeze
anywhere within yards of you, it will eject 1,000,000 or more
droplets - viruses in them can float around, remaining alive, for
30 mins or more.
Ever thought about working from home?"
From : Hypochondria Can Kill, John Naish
