The impact of microclimate strategies for the improvement of indoor air quality on well-being and productivity of industrial workers

In the last years, in industry, the adoption of effective microclimate strategies for the improvement of the indoor air quality (IAQ) has been considered an important topic for its effects on the workers' health and safety, but it is recently more relevant than ever in the light of the current coronavirus pandemic. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is moving the scientific community's attention to the study of new microclimate strategies to reduce the transmission of respiratory viruses within industrial settings. Experimental studies showed that increased ventilation and controlled relative humidity levels influence the buoyancy of the expiratory clouds ejected during human respiratory. The result is a reduced contamination range of the suspended droplets containing the respiratory viruses. The existing literature outlines eight Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) factors impacting occupants' health and well-being. Among these, IAQ and thermal comfort rise as the most influential ones. The Italian National Institute of Health recently defined a set of strategic implementation measures to improve the IAQ in industrial environments and, ultimately, contain the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, the World Health Organization recommends an increase in the ventilation rate of industrial environments through natural aeration or artificial ventilation. However, these microclimatic variations may cause thermal stress, discomfort and other adverse effects on workers' health and safety. As the literature lacks studies reviewing the effects of these microclimatic strategies, this paper aims to investigate their impact on the well-being and productivity of industrial workers. At the same time, this work is also of interest to industries as it analyses the technologies adopted in the industry to improve IEQ. The findings of this paper describe the critical contents of mid-long term strategies for reducing the transmission of respiratory infections, as the common seasonal flu and the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).