Health

Sick again? Maybe your building is to blame.

Illustrations by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff

March 20, 2025

1 min read

Take our quiz to learn more about how indoor air quality can impact your health

Do you ever find yourself feeling tired or struggling to concentrate while at the office? In “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Can Make You Sick — or Keep You Well,” Harvard public health and business experts Joseph Allen and John Macomber explore how the places we spend most of our time — our homes, workplaces, and schools — affect our well-being, focus, and problem-solving ability. Allen helped us develop the following quiz based on his research on indoor air quality.

Step 1 of 10

10%

1. How much of their lives do Americans on average spend indoors?

80%

65%

90%

75%

2. Which workplace change boosted workers’ cognitive function in a 2015 Harvard study?

Switch to open office layout

Building increased air ventilation

Water filters installed in the kitchen

3. Building air ventilation rates shifted in the 1970s, with the main goal of:

Reducing asthma attacks

Improving cognitive function

Limiting complaints related to body odors (“bioeffluents”)

Preventing transmission of influenza

4. Where do you breathe most outdoor air pollution?

Outdoors

Indoors

5. If you live in an apartment, how much of the indoor air is coming from your neighbor’s apartment?

0%

1%

9%

30%

6. How many opportunities can you identify to make this building healthier?

3

5

More than 10

7. How much of the air you breathe indoors just came out of the lungs of others in the room?

<1%

1-3%

3% or more

8. Actions you can take to reduce spread of infectious diseases indoors:

Bring in more outdoor air

Increase the level of filtration

Use portable air cleaners with HEPA filers

All of the above

9. Dust is hormonally active. True or false?

True

False

10. Of the 80,000-plus chemicals available for commerce, how many have been banned by the EPA since 1976?

200

6

33

Δ