Indoor Air Quality 

Basic Facts about Indoor Air Quality

What is Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)?

• refers to air quality inside a building, like a school

• relates to the health and comfort of building occupants 

• understanding and controlling common pollutants inside a school can help reduce educators/students health risks

What are the Benefits of Clean School Air?

• improves cognition and productivity

• improves test scores

• increases energy levels

• protects against outdoor air pollutants such as wildfire smoke

• decreases the number of environmental triggers for conditions like asthma and allergies

• reduces spread of airborne diseases like influenza, RSV, SARS-CoV-2 and measles

How can the School Community work together to improve School Air Quality?

• Facility Engineers: Ensure every school in the district is meeting the newest ASHRAE guidelines

• Administrators: Ensure the HVAC is maintained and working in accordance with manufacturer operational guidelines

• Teachers: Clean Air in Classrooms using W.A.T.C.H.

• Teachers and Students: Build DIY Air Cleaners for Classrooms. A great way to empower students!

• Parents and Students: Stay home when sick. If you can’t stay home, wear a mask.

How do I know if the School's Air Quality is good?

• you can measure it with an air quality monitor

  • Aranet4 CO2 monitor

  • Airthings View Plus can measure CO2, VOCs, PM2.5 (fine particles), radon, humidity

Canadian Resources

• It’s Airborne - Joey Fox P.Eng

• Keeping Kids in School with Clean Air using ASHRAE 241 -  Joey Fox P. Eng 

• Intro to Ventilation by Joey Fox P.Eng

• Poor Air Quality in Schools - Julia Wright speaks with Joey Fox, engineer and chair of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers air quality advisory group, about the poor results and what it means for our kids. 

• AirAssess APP - OHCOW’s AirAssess app assesses the air quality in your workplace and provides you with ideas for taking action on any air quality issues 

International Resources

• Increasing ventilation reduces SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission in schools: A retrospective cohort study in Italy's Marche region 

• What were the historical reasons for the resistance to recognizing airborne transmission