Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality Essay

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IAQ for Students

There are many factors and considerations that can be assessed when it comes to the quality of a student's living environment. Many people point to things like temperature in the classroom, the books being used, the availability of materials, the quality of the teachers, the condition of the schools and so forth. However, one condition that is missed a lot of the time would be the indoor air quality (IAQ) of a school. Indeed, if the air quality is not good, this can cause breathing or even wider health issues for the students that are present in the school. Just a few examples of what can cause this problem are defective air conditioning, heater or blower units, dirty air filters and so forth. While there are many important considerations when it comes to the learning quality and health-related conditions of a school, indoor air quality should be near the top of any list of priorities.

Analysis

Many scholars and professionals have posed the question as to the importance of having good indoor air quality in the classroom. To be more specific, there are those that question whether having the proper indoor thermal conditions and/or carbon dioxide levels in a school lead to better or at least different health- and learning-related outcomes. One study on the subject took a look at nearly four hundred students ranging in age from nine to eleven years old. Of that group, nearly nine in ten (87%) responded to the associated survey and review. The students in question came from a total of fifteen classrooms in London primary schools. One startling statistic is that the rate of asthmatic symptoms and asthma attacks overall was much higher in urban school as compared to those that were in more suburban areas. Indeed, the rate was more than ten percent (10.2) in urban schools but it was only 1.5% in suburban schools over the same time period. It has been asserted that the "optimal" conditions for a classroom is a carbon dioxide density of less than one thousand parts per million (ppm) and that the prevailing temperature should be between 22 and 26 degrees Celsius. It should be noted that there are little to no regulations that regulate required temperature in the classrooms (in London or anywhere else) and/or the carbon dioxide levels in the same. Further, carbon dioxide is also heavily associated with climate change in general so regulations on carbon dioxide pollution would indirectly affect the air quality of students for the better (Chatzidiakou, Mumovic & Summerfield, 2015; Dias-Pereira, Raimondo, Corgnati & Gameiro de Silva, 2014).

Many people make much the same argument about indoor air quality when it comes to adult learning situations such as those at universities. Indeed, the age range for people in these learning situations is almost always eighteen-year-old and up. The author of this report found a study that focused specifically on the college air indoor quality subject. Rather than focus on optimal conditions in the eyes of the researchers, one particular study focused on perceived thermal comfort on the part of the students. They used two metrics, those being predicted mean vote (PMV) and predicted percent dissatisfied (PPD). The mean value of the PMV index rates were from 0.55 to -0.69 during both seasons in which measurements were taken. It should be noted that the environment in question had an air-exchange rate that was assured by a natural ventilation system. The PPD rates for the same measurement period ranged from 11.66 to 15.04%. A bit of context on those rates is that there was the influence of air conditioning and ventilation not to mention the opening and closing of manually operated windows in the associated buildings. Not unlike the prior study that related to primary schools in London, it was deciphered and decided that any temperature above the 27 degrees Celsius was beyond the acceptable and "comfortable" range. This is only one degree off of the range named for the primary schools. A secondary aim of the college study was to assess the optimal temperature and other conditions in the school (including air quality) that would lead to the best learning situations and outcomes for the students that were present at the school. Some have gone so far as to develop and use data modeling to find and keep such a balance. Once such model is known as the Transient System Simulation, or TRNSYS for short. This simulation and model makes use of the PMV and PPD indicators mentioned above and also helps measure the associated heating, cooling and air quality demands as they pertain to a certain environment.

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Just as one example, the researchers used the system to design a proper air flow and temperature model for amphitheater (Sarbu & Pacurar, 2015).

Other studies have taken things even further and brought in new variables. One study that occurred in the southwestern part of the United States used a number of air quality metrics to make their assessments. In addition to the commonly used temperature and carbon dioxide levels, this study also looked at relative humidity and dust settling in the room. A few interesting things were found from this study. First, the amount of particulates in the air did not seem to have a direct effect on the perceived air quality and outcomes of the students. However, there was a clear correlation between the air temperature and the conditions perceived by the students. One term that comes to light in this study is what is known as sick building syndrome, or SBS. This condition and its effect on student learning performance were assed and it would seem that ventilation rates as well as carbon dioxide levels did have an effect on the learning quality and performance of the students. One last thing that was found in this study was that the electricity and oil consumption of a facility seems to have a pretty firm correlation with the amount of indoor air pollutants in a facility. In other words, the less energy consumption a building or facility has, the less air pollutants that the building will tend to have (Dorizas, Assimakopoulous & Santamouris, 2015).

As far as ways to alleviate air pollution and temperature issues, some solutions are brought forward. In addition to the use of efficient energy solutions as noted in the last source, one suggestion put forward by some people is the use of chlorine dioxide. The substance acts as a disinfectant. When it comes to situations where bacteria and fungi are in the area, this can obviously be beneficial as it would reduce the transmission of bacteria-borne diseases. A study of the efficacy of chlorine dioxide was done at a particular facility. The bio-aerosol levels in the building were measured before the chlorine dioxide was applied so as to set a benchmark of where the facility was before the chlorine dioxide was used or applied to the ventilation system. In this particular building, the bacterium level was 714 +/- 1706 CFU/m3 and the fungi level was 803 +/- 633 CFU/m3. The chlorine dioxide was then applied using three different procedures, those being single, multiple and regular disinfections. Of those three methods, the last two of the three were found to have an efficiency level of nearly sixty percent. Obviously, these results are tampered and affected by the amount of people that come and go from the building via the opening of a door. This obviously has an effect on the bacteria and fungi levels due to what is coming in from the outside air and the people that are entering the building. For buildings like doctor's offices or other areas where the density of sick people is higher, it is asserted by the study that regular chlorine dioxide applications are a very effective way to keep overall bacteria and fungi levels to a minimum (Hsu & Huang, 2010).

One part of the indoor air quality subject is educating the affected or potentially affected students about the subject. One such example of this happening in real life is the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) program at Oregon State University. The program, at its core, has provided science and math tutoring and "enrichment" to about 2,400 pre-college minority and/or low income students. In 1996, the university received a four-year grant from the National Institute of Environmental Sciences (NIEHS) to improve the understanding of teachers, students and community members as it relates to environmental health science issues. The topics that they focused on after receiving the grant included a number of things include water quality, indoor air quality and food safety. The indoor air quality subject was the primary focus of the 1997-1998 school year. The work relating to indoor air quality included activities such as overall curriculum development, teacher training workshops and a litany of hands-on activities for students at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. The subject of indoor air quality (as well as the other subjects) are used as a way….....

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