The association of air pollution with blood pressure, heart rate and stress among office workers using essential oils

Aromatherapy can relieve stress and lower blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in humans. However, whether exposure to ambient aromas in the workplace has positive or negative cardiovascular effects remains unclear. We recruited 356 healthy office workers from 10 companies in Northern Taiwan to conduct a prospective observational study from 2019 to 2022. Six repeated visits were conducted for each worker to measure HR, systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), perceived stress scale (PSS), and exposure to particulate air pollution and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) at the workplace. Mixed-effects models were used to explore the association between air pollution exposure and cardiovascular effects. The results showed significant associations between TVOCs, particulate air pollution and adverse cardiovascular effects, including increased HR and BP among office workers with heavy use of essential oils (office workers who used and/or were exposed to essential oils for more than 1 h per day in the workplace and home). No significant association between air pollution exposure and cardiovascular effects was observed among workers without essential oils usage. However, an association between TVOCs exposure and beneficial cardiovascular effects (decreased HR and BP) was observed among workers with light use of essential oils. Moreover, workers with heavy use of essential oils were significantly associated with increased PSS scores. We concluded that workers with heavy use of essential oils exposed to TVOCs in the workplace may lead to adverse cardiovascular effects and increased self-reported stress.