By Scarlett Mora, age 12
Air pollution is bad for kids. When we breathe polluted air, our respiratory, reproductive, endocrine, immune, digestive, and neurological systems can be affected, according to the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
In one study, “Israeli students performed worse on high-stakes exams when air pollution spiked on test day. Similar results were found in China,” reports The 74.
A healthy amount of carbon dioxide in the air is less than 1,000 parts per million (PPM); 1,500 PPM or higher is considered unhealthy.
Your attention can be lower if you are learning in unhealthy air. Fine particulate matter in the air can also irritate the lungs, cross into the blood stream, and “trigger systemic inflammation,” according to The 74. One in 13 children today have asthma, and schools often have contaminants and allergens that affect asthma symptoms, according to Harvard Graduate School of Education. Sometimes students and staff can’t go to work because of this.
Fortunately, there is a solution: air purifiers!
A recent study found that when schools installed air purifiers, student absenteeism decreased by 12.5%, and students’ test scores improved.
Breathing cleaner air helps you think faster, remember more, and make fewer errors. Air purifiers can help even more in schools that serve low-income communities, because they are more likely to be in areas with more pollution. Also, having air purifiers could help students be sick less often and not spread as much sickness.
To be effective, standard air purifiers need to filter at least 30 cubic feet of air per minute per student and should be quieter than 50 decibels.
Eniola Shokunbi, a middle school student in Middletown, Conn., made her own box fan air filter system. She said that the air purifier took out 99% of the viruses in the air. It cost $60 to make.
Eniola Shokunbi’s goal is to put an air filter in every classroom in America. Already, Connecticut’s government approved $11.5 million to fund air filters in schools across the state.
