工作效率低？也许是办公室空气的错

Working in a well-ventilated 'green' office can help boost your brainpower, researchers have found.

研究人员发现，通风良好的“绿色办公室有助于提升脑力。

People whose desk space is well ventilated with below average indoor pollution and carbon dioxide levels, showed more ability to think, understand, remember and learn, according to a study.

一项研究称，在办公桌通风条件良好，室内空气污染和二氧化碳水平均低于平均水平的地方，人们表现出更强的思考、理解、记忆和学习能力。

It suggests that the indoor environmental quality can have a profound impact on the decision-making and performance of workers.

这表明，室内环境质量对员工的决策力和工作表现有很大的影响。

Researchers at Harvard looked at the decision making abilities of 24 people, who were exposed to different indoor working conditions over six days.

哈佛大学的研究人员观察了24个人的决策能力，这些人在不同室内环境下工作了六天的时间。

The findings, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, showed those with higher levels of pollutants were less able.

研究发现：污染物水平越高，人们的决策能力越低，这一研究结果发表在《环境健康展望》期刊上。

Participants scored an average 61 percent higher while working in buildings with low pollution levels, compared to days working in a conventional building.

研究参与者在污染程度较低的办公大楼工作时的得分平均比在常规办公大楼工作时高了61%。

They were tested on everything from basic tasks to crisis response and information seeking.

他们进行了各种各样的测试，包括完成基本任务、危机应对和寻求信息的能力。

When low carbon dioxide levels were combined with lower pollutants in buildings, cognitive scores were 101 percent higher than in conventional buildings, which researchers said was significant as it is not typically thought of as a direct indoor pollutant.

在二氧化碳含量低而且室内污染物少时，研究参与者的认知能力得分比在常规办公室里时高出101%。研究人员称这一发现十分重要，因为通常人们并不认为二氧化碳是直接的室内污染物。

Dr Joseph Allen, director of the healthy buildings program at the Harvard Centre for Health and the Global Environment, said it was an area that had been largely ignored.

哈佛大学健康和全球环境中心(Harvard Centre for Health and the Global Environment)的约瑟夫·艾伦(Joseph Allen)博士说，一直以来这都是个很大程度上被人们忽视的地方。

'We spend 90 per cent of our time indoors and 90 per cent of the costs of a building are (related to) the occupants, yet indoor environmental quality and its impact on health and productivity are often an afterthought,' he said.

他说：“我们90%的时间都是在室内，一栋建筑90%的花费都与居住使用者有关，但是我们却常常在事后才考虑室内环境质量和它对健康以及生产力的影响。

'These results suggest even modest improvements to indoor environmental quality may have a profound impact on the decision making performance of workers.'

“这些研究结果表明，即使只对室内环境质量稍加改善，也可能对员工的决策能力和工作表现产生深远影响。

The findings follow British research which found having plants in offices boosts productivity by 15 per cent by making workers more physically, cognitively and emotionally involved in their jobs.

此前，英国有研究表明在办公室摆放植物可以使员工在身体、认知和情感上都更投入工作，从而提高15%的生产力。哈佛大学的研究发现支持了这一结论。

Vocabulary

well-ventilated：通风良好的

carbon dioxide：二氧化碳

cognitive：认知的