Teachers in Columbus OH are on strike, and the first item on their list of demands is guaranteed air conditioning. In this interview, a teacher who is on strike describes a classroom that is 90 degrees INSIDE the classroom, and there are 36 students in the class. She describes classrooms that are too hot in summer, too cold in winter, windows that won’t shut, windows that won’t open, and bad plumbing. The teachers are striking for both the students’ and the teachers’ health and well being.
What happens to people inside rooms that are poorly ventilated? The Environmental Protection Agency has a website about indoor air quality in schools. They have another website listing scientific studies about indoor air quality, student health, test scores, and teacher retention.
The EPA notes that poor indoor air quality and inadequate ventilation can affect health, school performance, test scores, infection transmission, and teacher retention. Dampness and mold increase asthma and respiratory health effects. Changes in room temperature affect students’ ability to concentrate. Too much CO2 from crowding can slow down the brain, and too much crowding with low ventilations leads to more spread of infectious diseases.
THE GOOD NEWS is that many studies demonstrate that improving ventilation and air quality can improve student health, school performance and test scores! It is something that can be fixed, so that students and teachers are healthier and happier and do better.
When there aren’t maintenance backlogs (meaning problems are fixed quickly), student attendance increases, and dropout rates decrease. Children in classrooms with higher ventilation rates tend to do better on standardized tests. Higher ventilation rates reduce the transmission of viruses such as influenza and Covid and reduce other respiratory illnesses. Higher ventilation rates mean better student attendance, and fewer sick days for teachers.
For a quick fix, schools can use portable room air filters to remove allergens, particles, and viruses. The best long-term fix is to fix leaking pipes, clean up mold and allergens, and make sure the heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC) system is in good repair, meets standards, and has adequate fresh air exchanges and good air filters to remove dust, allergens, and infectious viruses and bacteria.
It is in a school district’s mission to educate students and keep dropout rates low. Fixing broken or old HVAC systems improves learning, improves test scores, reduces absenteeism and dropout rates, and improves teacher and student health. It only makes sense to have good HVAC systems that work and meet standards.
For more information on indoor air quality, see our Healthy Indoor Breathing Toolkit. We have information and safe cleaning products, rugs, flooring, and much more.
08-29-2022
