This Wednesday, September 18th is Clean Air Day. And a central problem concerns the quality of the air in schools. How to clean these enclosed spaces in schools, especially where pollution is heavy, along a road for example?
Consequence on the concentration
In a majority of schools, class air is still too polluted. By pollution coming from outside, but also by pollutants from furniture or felts, and CO2 emitted by students. In many classes, the rate of particulates and CO2 gives headaches to children and teachers. According to the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), this hinders the students' ability to concentrate and thus to improve their performance.
Solutions exist. The first is to limit emissions of pollutants by cleaning with eco-labeled products or with simple gestures. For example, never leave paint in the open, open felts or markers, and ventilate classes by opening the windows.
Experienced air purifiers
There is also this experiment that will be conducted. Air purifiers, the first of their kind, will be installed next month in two schools in the commune of Raincy, north-east of Paris. "There is a box that sucks in the outside air, the air passes through a filter that holds all the small particles, and then the clean air is spat out in the room," says Sabine Fauquez, from Veolia, a company behind purifiers.
These boxes of purification will not cost the commune the time of the experimentation. But if the mayor decides to invest, it will be around 1,000 euros per class and per year, a budget of 12,000 euros for Le Raincy.