Why Clean Water at Work Boosts Employee Health and Focus
These days, employers are more aware of providing a working environment conducive to success. This might mean investing in standing desks for employees, providing healthy snacks and lunches, and offering perks like mental health days and free or discounted therapy. Your employees’ wellness should be a priority because healthy and happy employees are more productive and motivated. In this blog, let’s talk about the importance of making clean, pure water accessible to your staff.
Hydration + Concentration: What’s the Connection?
Before we get into water quality, we need to acknowledge that staying hydrated is pivotal to focus and concentration.
Science has long known this, but it looks like the connection might be even stronger than we suspected. Historically, researchers believed that a body water deficit of 2% or more would produce decreases in cognitive performance. However, more current research suggests that all it takes is a body water loss of just 1%, and cognitive performance can go down. Even more startling is that the vast majority of us are dehydrated.
Your body needs water for a number of reasons, one of which is to maintain the delicate balance between H2O and other elements in your brain cells. When you’re dehydrated, that balance is thrown out of whack, and your brain cells can’t function as efficiently. This can make it harder to focus; it can impair your short-term memory; you may have more difficulty recalling long-term memories; and you might struggle with simple calculations.
Dehydration can also contribute to fatigue, dizziness, and headaches, which make it even harder to do your job well.
There’s no denying it: If you want your employees to feel good and perform well, they need clean water, and lots of it.
Why is Clean Water Important?
“There’s a sink in the kitchen,” you’re thinking, or maybe you’ll spring for bottled water for your staff. But let’s talk about why neither of those is sufficient.
For starters, bottled water is no better than tap water. In fact, studies have shown that in many cases, it’s the same thing—just in plastic packaging and with a hefty pricetag. And you probably don’t need us to tell you why we need to stay far away from single-use plastic.
What’s the problem with the quality, though? This water may contain an array of pollutants, including lead, chlorine, fluoride, hormones, fertilizers, pesticides, and of course, microplastics.
Why should you be worried?
Well, microplastics in water can stimulate the release of endocrine disruptors and trigger an immune system response. Unfiltered fluoride water is linked to lower IQ in children. Estrogen in water might disrupt your reproductive cycle and increase your risk of cardiovascular diseases and breast and prostate cancers. Lead contamination from polluted drinking water may cause lead poisoning, which has symptoms like high blood pressure; headaches; abdominal cramps; kidney, brain, and reproductive problems; fatigue; and irritability.
And these are just a few examples of how drinking polluted water can harm your employees. So, you can’t encourage your employees to stay healthy by drinking plenty of water…without providing them with filtered water to drink.
“I’ll get them a pitcher filter”
Okay, so you’re on board with providing filtered water and you’ve committed to stay away from plastic. That’s a great start! Let’s talk about what types of filters you should look out for.
Certain brand names probably jump out at you. Maybe you’re thinking of buying a pitcher filter, or one of those filters that attaches to the faucet. Here’s the problem, though: Even if it’s a name you trust, the type of filter it uses matters tremendously.
The importance of reverse osmosis (RO)
Imagine a window screen that has large holes—big enough to allow in all sorts of creepy crawlies, like flies and spiders.
This is your run-of-the-mill water filter. It’s not precise enough to really filter out much besides very large particles. In other words, it really doesn’t make that big of a difference.
Now, imagine a window screen so precise that only fresh air gets in. That is reverse osmosis.
A reverse osmosis water filter only allows water molecules to pass through, taking away all the gross stuff, like chlorine, lead, chromium, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), microplastics, and PFOA/PFOS (forever chemicals).
So, not all water purifiers are created equally.
How does reverse osmosis compare to other filters?
The Sans water filter is noticeably more effective than other filtering options. Refrigerator filters can only remove some particulates and the taste and odor of chlorine, and the same goes for pitcher filters. They typically are just a carbon filter.
Our four-layer RO filters removes impurities down to 0.0001 microns in size. We add in UV-C purification as the final layer of defense. What this ultimately means is that our filtration system instantly gives you crystal clear water that’s up to 99% free from pollutants. For peace of mind, the water quality monitor gives you real-time insights.
Sans goes beyond efficiency and also provides convenience. The glass water pitcher is removable and auto-refills with fresh H2O. Plus, it instantly dispenses hot water for your coffee or tea. Zero installation means your purifier will be up and running in no time.
Learn more about the Sans water technology.
Level Up Your Workplace Wellness
Our globe is experiencing a major crisis: disastrous pollution of our land and water. It’s a real catch-22, too. We are causing the pollution in the first place, and we end up paying the price for it, both with our wallets and our health.
Guzzling bottled water isn’t the answer. Neither are cheap, inefficient water filters. Look after your employees’ wellness with state-of-the-art water filtration technology.