Classroom Air Purification Study
How do air purification units impact potentially infectious airborne particles and overall air quality in a school classroom?
As school administrators plan for students’ return to the classroom this fall,
the health and well-being of our nation’s youth are of the utmost concern.
As Featured on Good Morning America - July 21, 2021
Challenge:
Airborne transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the virus that causes COVID-19, has shined a light on the often aging and inadequate ventilation and filtration systems in many U.S. schools today. Lack of fresh air coupled with densely populated classrooms presents a challenge in keeping students safe from COVID-19 and other airborne viruses.
Well Living Lab Response:
The Well Living Lab and collaborators from the University of Minnesota examined how using stand-alone/ portable air purification units to supplement a classroom’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit impacts the way airborne particles spread through a classroom and deposit on various classroom surfaces when compared to using an HVAC unit alone.
Implications:
We explored the impact of portable air purification units on air quality for students seated adjacent to an air purifier as well as the effect throughout an entire classroom, ultimately investigating how to best limit potentially infectious airborne particle exposure.
