Why is air in a sunny park different than air in a office cubicle with harsh bright lights when it is both air? Is it a placebo or a real thing?
In: Planetary Science
People exhale carbon dioxide, which can build up surprisingly fast in enclosed rooms. Higher CO2 concentrations can make you feel unfocused, irritable, or sleepy. Moving out of that room into a more ventilated space lets CO2 escape your blood which is the fresh, rejuvenating feeling of fresh air.
Indoor air tends to accumulate CO2 and humidity from the people breathing.
Outside you will have lots of plants giving of complex chemicals that will make the smell more pleasant.
It’s a real thing and there’s a few differences. But it’s important to mention it’s not just fresh “AIR” so much as a fresh “ENVIRONMENT”.
The first is that the air is heated by sun, not by an internal system. This affects its humidity and the way in which the overall space is heated. On a sunny day, it’ll be warmer near an asphalt path, but cooler under a tree, and the humidity content is changed greatly by growing plants. Office spaces usually target a uniform temperature and uniform humidity. So you don’t get the changes that’ll happen as you pass through a park or even just picnic in one place as the breeze continually changes the air around you..
The “smellscape” and types and contents of air impurities is different. There are lots of contributors in parks to nature-like outdoorsy smells, but an office is more about cleaning supplies or scents picked up by fabrics and released over time. One is usually more natural and appeals more than the other, even if we don’t consciously notice it. Inside you get dust that comes from human skin flakes or clothing wear and tear, or from the slow wearing away of the carpet. Outside, the dust is removed or lost by things like rainfall or breezes or anything else.
Next, the air in a park is moved by random breezes or somewhat less random winds, but there are little differences in pressure that deliver different sensations to your skin, sometimes noticeable and sometimes not. These might be more of a distraction than an asset in an office setting where the target is to have air moving in an efficient circulation pattern that doesn’t cause whiffs to blow papers off of desks or make noticeable noises. Instead you get the “white noise”, not the quiet rustling of leaves or the swishing of walking through short grass, and if you want some “randomness” you have to get a pivoting fan going.
Finally, “fresh air” includes “fresh sightscape” and “relaxation”. People associate a park with positive experiences like exercise and breathing deeply. People associate office spaces with often-negative experiences like having to work or having interpersonal conflict, or dealing with obligations or less-than-pleasant people. All of that adds to the overall perception of a park being more “fresh”.
things like furniture, carpeting, everything we put indoors create airborne particles. without exceptional ventilation the concentration of airborne particles increases over time and reduces what we call “indoor air quality.” When we breathe, these particles enter our lungs, blood, etc, and can be harmful to our health.
Indoor air quality is highly dependent on HVAC systems. Many systems (especially residential) only recirculate air, if at all, with minimal air filtration. Over time CO2 levels increase while O2 levels decrease, leading to feeling tired.
Outdoors, the concentration of harmful particles in the air is generally less than indoors. This means breathing air outdoors is better for your health.
There are other factors at play as well. Psychologically, going outdoors is beneficial compared to being indoors for long periods of time. The sun, sounds, etc are stress reducing.
It’s shocking how bad indoor air quality can be. Any enclosed space quickly builds up CO2 and particles.
This isn’t popular opinion or conventional wisdom, this is a well documented and studied fact.
https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/indoor-air-quality
Imagine you’re chained to someone who is farting uncontrollably, nonstop, for hours and hours and hours.
Imagine you’re stuck in a small cramped office with this person. The farts have nowhere to escape to and just build up more and more and more within that confined space.
Now imagine that, instead, you’re out in a wide open field with the farter. The farts can dissipate and blow away on the wind.
Now just replace “farts” with the Carbon dioxide that we exhale with every breath. Same concept. That’s how fresh air works.
The lighting has nothing to do with the air. Indoor air passes through mechanical processors to push it, cool it, warm it, dehumidify, or humidify, depending on needs. Outdoor air is a product of the surrounding environment – pollution, forests, mountains, weather, the sea, a lake, etc. Downtown city air is probably the dirtiest air there is and it smells of auto exhaust, food preparation (oil and smoke), sewers, garbage, while a park outside the city will have the freshest air (provided it’s not beside a garbage dump).
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