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Low humidity
Volvic, the mineral water supplier, produced a report in 1999, which suggests that an office with af humidity level of 25% would be as dry as the Sahara Desert.
Although it is acknowledged that low humidity is more uncomfortable than unhealthy, airborne bacteria can travel furter and faster through a dry atmosphere than through a humid atmosphere. This may increase the possibility of contaminations, in fact an ASHRAE report of 1979 states that dryness causes cracking of nasal tissues which can give inhaled germs access to the blood-stream.
Contact lenses
Contact lens wearers, particularly of the hard and gas permeable type, are often the first people to complain of a dry atmosphere. The lens sits in the eye in a film of moisture. Should this film dry out then the lens feels very coarse, little more than a piece of grit, which could cause permanent damage to the eye and result in the wearer having to wear the spectacles that they were trying to avoid in the first place.
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