The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is experimenting with air purifiers in its high schools to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

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Charles Pietri

  • The Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region has been experimenting since Tuesday with a high-intensity air purifier in a high school in the Rhône.

  • It is about cleaning up the air quality by reducing the concentration of fine particles.

  • This system is used in Germany to combat the circulation of the coronavirus.

Air, vector of the spread of the coronavirus?

Convinced that "air purification" is an effective means of fighting the epidemic, Laurent Wauquiez, LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (currently the most contaminated in France) intends to equip high schools with air purifiers. air.

A first experiment was launched Tuesday in Saint-Priest in the Rhône.

A “high efficiency” air filter (HEPA), designed by the Auvergne company Camfil, was installed at the Fernand Forest vocational school.

Out of 100,000 fine particles, the filter only allows 5 to pass, indicates the region specifying that the first tests, carried out upstream, have proved very "convincing".

“The efficiency rate is 99.9%,” she says.

Particle concentration rate divided by 8 in one hour

“From the first seconds, the concentration of fine particles decreases.

In twenty minutes, there is a reduction of 75% of the finest particles.

In one hour, the concentration of particles in the room where the device is located is divided by 8 ”, she explains.

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region will invest 10 million euros in the operation: 5 million to equip its 565 high schools, and 5 million euros to help the municipalities and departments to equip schools but also health.

"While Germany has taken head-to-head with the subject of air purification as a means of combating the spread of Covid-19, France is lagging behind on this subject, considers Laurent Wauquiez .

I do not understand that the National Education does not take this subject seriously ”.

The president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region therefore sent a letter to the Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer so that the government can invest enough in this area.

At the same time, the Region will initiate work with the CEA in Grenoble on HEPA filters but also on other innovations in order to carry out a full-scale test on Covid-19.

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