by Sensix Team
almost 2 years agoPoor indoor air quality can have a negative effect on our health. It’s a fact (that we hope you knew). Things get even more serious when kids come around. Poor indoor air quality in schools can have (and most likely will have) a negative effect on children’s health and academic performance. This is the subject we want to address in this blog post. And that’s what we are going to do.
Why more (than to any other building)? Because kids’ bodies are actively growing and they breathe higher volumes of air relative to their body weights than adults do. They also spend more time in school or group structures (preschools, day nurseries) than in any indoor environment other than the home. That’s why kids are considered as one of the most sensitive groups to atmospheric pollution.
Poor IAQ can lead to a large variety of health problems and potentially affect comfort, concentration, and staff/student performance. Poor indoor air quality can hasten building deterioration. Understanding the importance of good IAQ in schools is the backbone of developing an effective IAQ program.
A study conducted at Westview High School shows how scores were affected by varying temperatures. This is what the results revealed:
You can’t fight an invisible enemy, right? Therefore, preventing or responding promptly to IAQ problems should start with baseline-ing, asking how are things now.
There are six basic control methods that can lower concentrations of indoor air pollutants:
Sensix Ambient comes to help
Sensix Ambient Solution gives a better and complete image to auditors and administrators in order to come up with data-driven solutions. In one case, we identified that thermal inertia differs significantly from classroom to classroom. That school failed to establish a thermal equilibrium, thus if more heat energy was introduced, some classrooms were extremely hot (27°C) and others were extremely cold (17°C) during the winter.
The proposed solution:
You can find more about our public schools project/case study right here.
The most relevant indicators Sensix tracks
Learn more: https://sensix.io/solution/.
COVID-19 brought indoor air quality monitoring upfront. People became aware of the importance of air quality on their health. This is the most important lesson we need to remember in the soon-to-be, hopefully, post-pandemic period: the concern should not be centered on costs but on the occupant’s health.
Schools have some unique aspects that we need to take into consideration, for example, the fact that the occupants are close together, with the typical school having approximately four times as many occupants as office buildings for the same amount of floor space.
We trust that there will be, in the near(est) future, local initiatives to improve air quality in schools. If nothing else, things will speed up, due to the EU’s new regulations regarding sustainability (responsible and efficient energy usage). Hope for the best: green schools, happy and healthy kids.
😮💨 Interested in learning more? Check out the Unites States Environmental Protection Agency Reference Guide for Indoor Air Quality in Schools.
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