The DOI matches its Crossref record; 24 of the 24 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Associations of Cognitive Function Scores with Carbon Dioxide, Ventilation, and Volatile Organic Compound Exposures in Office Workers: A Controlled Exposure Study of Green and Conventional Office Environments
Open accessAbstract
Background: The indoor built environment plays a critical role in our overall well-being because of both the amount of time we spend indoors (~90%) and the ability of buildings to positively or negatively influence our health. The advent of sustainable design or green building strategies reinvigorated questions regarding the specific factors in buildings that lead to optimized conditions for health and productivity. Objective: We simulated indoor environmental quality (IEQ) conditions in “Green” and “Conventional” buildings and evaluated the impacts on an objective measure of human performance: higher-order cognitive function. Methods: Twenty-four participants spent 6 full work days (0900–1700 hours) in an environmentally controlled office space, blinded to test conditions. On different days, they were exposed to IEQ conditions representative of Conventional [high concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)] and Green (low concentrations of VOCs) office buildings in the United States. Additional conditions simulated a Green building with a high outdoor air ventilation rate (labeled Green+) and artificially elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels independent of ventilation. Results: On average, cognitive scores were 61% higher on the Green building day and 101% higher on the two Green+ building days than on the Conventional building day (p < 0.0001). VOCs and CO2 were independently associated with cognitive scores. Conclusions: Cognitive function scores were significantly better under Green+ building conditions than in the Conventional building conditions for all nine functional domains. These findings have wide-ranging implications because this study was designed to reflect conditions that are commonly encountered every day in many indoor environments. Citation: Allen JG, MacNaughton P, Satish U, Santanam S, Vallarino J, Spengler JD. 2016. Associations of cognitive function scores with carbon dioxide, ventilation, and volatile organic compound exposures in office workers: a controlled exposure study of green and conventional office environments. Environ Health Perspect 124:805–812; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1510037
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Low ventilation rates and CO2 concentrations normally found in office buildings (approximately 1,000 ppm) have been recently associated with impairment in multiple domains of high-order cognitive function [45,46].”
From Reduced cognitive function during a heat wave among residents of non-air-conditioned buildings: An observational study of young adults in the summer of 2016 (2018) · cites this paper as [46]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality
Falih, M. (2019) · Cited by 2,497
Satish, U., Mendell, M. J., Shekhar, K., Hotchi, T., Sullivan, D., Streufert, S., & Fisk, W. J. (2012) · Environmental Health Perspectives · doi:10.1289/ehp.1104789 · Cited by 1,064 · cited 4×
“However, this conventional thinking is being challenged as the evidence mounts for CO2 as a direct pollutant, not just a marker for other pollutants (Satish et al. 2012).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationWargocki, P. L., Wyon, D. P., Sundell, J., Clausen, G., & Fanger, P. O. (2000) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1034/j.1600-0668.2000.010004222.x · Cited by 693 · cited 1×
“…building factors, such as ventilation rate; workspace factors, such as the presence of chemical-emitting materials; and personal factors, such as job stress, allergies, and sex (Mendell 1993; Wargocki et al. 2000; Bornehag et al. 2005; Hedge 2009; Hedge and Gaygen 2010; Nishihara et al. 2014).”
Estimates of Improved Productivity and Health from Better Indoor Environments
Fisk, W. J., & Rosenfeld, A. H. (1997) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1997.t01-1-00002.x · Cited by 551
Associations between classroom CO2 concentrations and student attendance in Washington and Idaho
Shendell, D. G., Prill, R., Fisk, W. J., Apte, M. G., Blake, D., & Faulkner, D. (2004) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0668.2004.00251.x · Cited by 462 · cited 1×
“Corsi et al. (2002) reported CO 2 concentrations > 1,000 ppm in 66% of 120 classrooms in Texas, and Shendell et al. (2004) measured CO 2 concentrations > 1,000 ppm in 45% of 435 classrooms in Washington and Idaho and reported that elevated CO 2 concentrations were associated with increases in…”
BackgroundEffects of Green Buildings on Employee Health and Productivity
Singh, A., Syal, M., Grady, S. C., & Korkmaz, S. (2010) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2009.180687 · Cited by 320
Non-Specific Symptoms In Office Workers: A Review And Summary Of The Epidemiologic Literature
Mendell, M. J. (1993) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.00003.x · Cited by 282
Allen, J. G., MacNaughton, P., Laurent, J. G. C., Flanigan, S. S., Eitland, E. S., & Spengler, J. D. (2015) · Current Environmental Health Reports · doi:10.1007/s40572-015-0063-y · Cited by 281 · cited 1×
“To date, we know of no studies that have been conducted in green buildings where participants were blinded to their building condition (Allen et al. 2015).”
Self-citationPersily, A. (2015) · Building and Environment · doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.026 · Cited by 249 · cited 2×
“The > 100-year story of ventilation in buildings is complicated and was neatly summarized recently by Persily (2015).”
Hodgson, A. T., Rudd, A., Beal, D., & Chandra, S. (2000) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1034/j.1600-0668.2000.010003178.x · Cited by 240
Association between ventilation rates in 390 Swedish homes and allergic symptoms in children
Bornehag, C., Sundell, J., Hagerhed‐Engman, L., & Sigsgaard, T. (2005) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0668.2005.00372.x · Cited by 199
Maddalena, R. L., Mendell, M. J., Eliseeva, K., Chan, W. R., Sullivan, D. P., Russell, M., Satish, U., & Fisk, W. J. (2014) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1111/ina.12149 · Cited by 142
Self-citationIndoor environmental quality benefits of apartment energy retrofits
Noris, F., Adamkiewicz, G., Delp, W. W., Hotchi, T., Russell, M., Singer, B. C., Spears, M., Vermeer, K., & Fisk, W. J. (2013) · Building and Environment · doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2013.07.003 · Cited by 134 · cited 1×
“…in green buildings show lower concentrations of several key pollutants including particles, nitrogen dioxide, volatile volume 124 | number 6 | June 2016 • Environmental Health Perspectives organic compounds (VOCs), and allergens (Colton et al. 2014; Jacobs et al. 2015; Noris et al. 2013).”
Indoor Air Quality in Green Vs Conventional Multifamily Low-Income Housing
Colton, M. D., MacNaughton, P., Vallarino, J., Kane, J., Bennett-Fripp, M., Spengler, J. D., & Adamkiewicz, G. (2014) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es501489u · Cited by 120
Self-citationSIMULATION‐BASED ASSESSMENT OF MANAGERIAL COMPETENCE: RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY
Streufert, S., Pogash, R. M., & Piasecki, M. T. (1988) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1988.tb00643.x · Cited by 87 · cited 4×
“Extensive work has been dedicated to testing the validity of the SMS software; correlations between scores on these tests and other measures of productivity such as income at age and job level at age exceed 0.6 (Streufert et al. 1988).”
InfluentialMoving Into Green Healthy Housing
Jacobs, D. E., Ahonen, E. Q., Dixon, S. L., Dorevitch, S., Breysse, J., Smith, J. L., Evens, A., Dobrez, D., Isaacson, M., Murphy, C., et al. (2014) · Journal of Public Health Management and Practice · doi:10.1097/phh.0000000000000047 · Cited by 44 · cited 1×
“The SMS tool was also used to test the relationship between ventilation rate and cognitive function among 16 participants (Maddalena et al. 2015).”
MethodAnalysis of U.S. residential air leakage database
Chan, W. R., Program, A. F. N. N. S. A. N. A. N. S. P. D. (. U. A. S. F. E. E. A. R. E. B. T., Price, P. N., Sohn, M., & Gadgil, A. J. (2003) · doi:10.2172/816784 · Cited by 42
Satish, U., Streufert, S. C., Dewan, M. J., & Voort, S. V. (2004) · Allergy · doi:10.1046/j.1398-9995.2003.00360.x · Cited by 37 · cited 2×
“Cognitive Function Assessment The cognitive assessment was performed daily using the Strategic Management Simulation (SMS) software tool, which is a validated, computer-based test, designed to test the effectiveness of management-level employees through assessments of higher-order decision making (Streufert et al. 198…”
MethodSelf-citationPersily, A. K., & Gorfain, J. (2004) · doi:10.6028/nist.ir.7145 · Cited by 28
Nishihara, N., Wargocki, P. L., & Tanabe, S. (2013) · Building and Environment · doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2013.09.018 · Cited by 27
Impact of VOCs on decision making and productivity
Satish, U., Cleckner, L. B., & Vasselli, J. (2013) · Intelligent Buildings International · doi:10.1080/17508975.2013.812956 · Cited by 22 · cited 1×
“Previous testing with the SMS tool showed that 2 hr of painting, which exposed participants to VOCs, was associated with reductions in three of the five domains investigated (Satish et al. 2013).”
Self-citationIndoor Environment Conditions and Computer Work in an Office
Hedge, A., & Gaygen, D. E. (2010) · Science and Technology for the Built Environment · doi:10.1080/10789669.2010.10390897 · Cited by 20
Elevated corrosion rates and hydrogen sulfide in homes with ‘Chinese Drywall’
Allen, J. G., MacIntosh, D. L., Saltzman, L. E., Baker, B. J., Matheson, J. M., Recht, J. R., Minegishi, T., Fragala, M. A., Myatt, T. A., Spengler, J. D., et al. (2012) · The Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.01.067 · Cited by 15 · cited 2×
“For homes, beginning in this time period, typical air exchange rates began decreasing from approximately 1 air change per hour (ACH) to approximately 0.5 ACH [Chan et al. 2003; Hodgson et al. 2000; American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 2013b].”
InfluentialSelf-citation"Sick building" syndrome plagues workers, dwellers
Riesenberg, D. E. (1986) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.1986.03370220021005 · Cited by 12
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- ACGIH (American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists), 2015, 2015 Guide to Occupational Exposure Values.
- Breuer K, Satish U, 2003, Emergency management simulations: an approach to the assessment of decision-making processes in complex dynamic crisis environments., 145
- Corsi RL, Torres VM, Sanders M, Kinney KA, 2002, Carbon dioxide levels and dynamics in elementary schools: results from the TESIAS study., 74
- Swezey, 1998, Preliminary development of a computer-based team performance assessment simulation., Int J Cogn Ergonomics, 2, 163
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Chemical pollution: A growing peril and potential catastrophic risk to humanity
Naidu, R., Biswas, B., Willett, I. R., Cribb, J., Singh, B. K., Nathanail, C. P., Coulon, F., Semple, K. T., Jones, K. C., Barclay, A., et al. (2021) · Environment International · doi:10.1016/j.envint.2021.106616 · Cited by 698
Direct human health risks of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide
Jacobson, T., Kler, J. S., Hernke, M. T., Braun, R., Meyer, K. C., & Funk, W. E. (2019) · Nature Sustainability · doi:10.1038/s41893-019-0323-1 · Cited by 620
Carbon dioxide generation rates for building occupants
Persily, A. K., & de Jonge, L. (2017) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1111/ina.12383 · Cited by 573
Younas, M., Rezakazemi, M., Daud, M., Wazir, M. B., Ahmad, S., Ullah, N., Inamuddin, & Ramakrishna, S. (2020) · Progress in Energy and Combustion Science · doi:10.1016/j.pecs.2020.100849 · Cited by 421
Influence of indoor environmental quality on human health and productivity - A review
Mujan, I., Anđelković, A. S., Munćan, V., Kljajić, M. V., & Ružić, D. (2019) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.307 · Cited by 404
Metadata
- Authors
- Allen, J. G., MacNaughton, P., Satish, U., Santanam, S., Vallarino, J., & Spengler, J. D.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- SUNY Upstate Medical University (US)
- Syracuse University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Allen, Joseph G.
- Venue
- Environmental Health Perspectives
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2015-10-26
- Volume
- 124
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 805-812
- ISSN
- 0091-6765 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-9924
- PMC
- PMC4892924
- OpenAlex
- W2412131385
- Cited by
- 977
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 138 · 2025: 121 · 2024: 121 · 2023: 88 · 2022: 103 · 2021: 107 · 2020: 86 · 2019: 84 · 2018: 66 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 26.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- public-domain
- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor, 795 d)
- Locations
- Environmental Health Perspectives (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (T32ES007069)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Indoor Air Quality and Microbial Exposure
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Architecture › Facilities and Workplace Management
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Sustainable Building Design and Assessment
- Keywords
- cognitive function, carbon dioxide exposure, indoor ventilation, volatile organic compounds, sustainable construction, indoor environmental quality, office workers, higher-order cognition
- MeSH terms
- Air Pollutants, Occupational, Carbon Dioxide, Cognition, Humans, United States, Ventilation, Occupational Exposure, Air Pollution, Indoor, Volatile Organic Compounds
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
