Indoor air monitoring goes to school
Across the US, schools have begun measuring air quality en masse. Researchers are helping interpret the data
To read the full article click on this link: https://cen.acs.org/analytical-chemistry/Indoor-air-monitoring-goes-school/102/i27
The COVID-19 pandemic put the importance of indoor air quality in stark relief. The air in schools is of particular concern, and that concern spurred collaboration between researchers and school staff to find interventions to improve air quality to safeguard the health of students and staff. Data from indoor air monitors revealed that filter-based portable air cleaners were effective at removing airborne particulates. Ongoing research and monitoring will determine if this effort is making a beneficial health impact and will be used decide how to manage indoor air quality going forward.
Removing particles should minimize airborne pathogens and ultimately lower infection rates for respiratory illness. To get a sense if the portable air cleaners were really reducing disease rates, Hernandez and his team plugged the data from their 20-school pilot study into a COVID-19 risk estimation model published while the pandemic was raging (Risk Anal. 2021, DOI: 10.1111/risa.13844). The researchers found that their intervention could halve the chance of catching a respiratory illness.
“The average kid in the average classroom would have a 50% less chance of getting sick if we did this engineering intervention,” Hernandez says.
