The hidden toll of air pollution on office workers By Chris Mooney June 14 at 3:18 PM A view of the Los Angeles skyline shrouded by heavy smog in May 2015. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) In a new paper , economists and public health researchers have found that not even working indoors in an office can protect people from the deleterious impacts of polluted air and particularly fine particulate pollution — defined as tiny particles that can travel deep into our lungs and even get into the bloodstream and eventually reach the central nervous system. The study, released this week as a white paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, profited from the cooperation of a large Chinese travel firm, Ctrip International, which shared data on its workers’ performance with the researchers. It was conducted by Tom Chang of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California with colleagues from th...