School age children spend an average of six-seven hours a day and an average time of over 15,000 hours in the classroom. This means they spend a lot of time breathing the air inside the school building .
This is why the indoor air quality in schools should be clean and healthy for the safety of your children and students.
Even though the school is a safe space to learn, it still contains pollutants, particles and harmful microorganisms that may be harmful to the health of its students.
What Causes Air Pollution In Schools?
There are so many factors that lead to air pollution in Nigerian Schools and here are a few:
Incinerators / Dustbins:
Due to the increasing quantities of waste in a school’s incinerator, pollutants like nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxides, particulate matter, lead and mercury, dioxins are released into the air.
Chemicals in cleaning Products:
Certain chemicals emitted from cleaning products can be harmful from direct exposure or can react with other chemicals in the air to form harmful pollutants. These cleaning products may include; detergent, pesticides and insecticides.
Cleaning activities:
Cleaning classrooms is the proper thing to do but in some cases, it can have an unexpected downside. A few minutes of mopping with a fresh-scented cleaning product can generate many air borne particles. In many primary schools, classrooms and halls are mopped regularly and if not dried enough, it puts extra moisture in the air. This causes an increase in moulds or mildew.
It is a fact that we cannot eradicate the above causes of air pollution in schools because they keep the school clean, but this does not mean that they should be exposed to poor and unhealthy air throughout the 6 hours they stay in school a day.
Air Purifiers provide clean air benefits for schools, making children breathe in clean and healthy air while learning. Here are five reasons why you should invest in one today.
For Good Indoor air quality; Indoor air is two to five times more polluted than the worst outdoor air. It’s very important to make sure the air children breathe while they are in school is as clean as possible.This is because children breathe faster than adults and so they take in more polluted air. They are one of the most vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. This early exposure can have lifelong effects on a child’s life such as asthma, anxiety and even depression.
Therefore an air purifier is important. It is the only device that eradicates all sorts of pollutants from the air, making it a safe environment for children to learn,
To prevent air- borne Infections from spreading:. Airborne infection is spread by respiratory aerosols, i.e it can be transmitted when you breathe.This means that social distancing and surface hygiene is not enough protection for the children, especially because they stay in the classroom for a long time. It is very much important to focus on air hygiene to risk airborne infections in schools.
Air purifiers clean the air by removing airborne particles and droplets,which may contain microorganisms. This simply means that if a child with flu comes to school an air purifier will prevent it from spreading rapidly by destroying the airborne pollutants in the air.
Please note: An air purifier does not cure airborne diseases.
To Improve productivity from staff and students: Air Pollution can affect school attendance and cause attention problems.
Good indoor air quality supports the health of students so they can attend school and live their full potential. Poor indoor air quality contributes to absenteeism.
In many cases, students have been sent to the school clinic and in severe cases, back home because of a sudden asthma attack which was induced by air pollution.
Clean air is vital to students’ cognitive health and performance. Cognitive health is impacted by many things including nutrition, genetics and indoor environmental conditions . The time spent in school is a time for physical growth, intense learning and critical neurological and social development.
It also supports the health of staff, without whom educating students is impossible.
An air purifier creates a favourable indoor environment, helping students and staff perform tasks requiring mental concentration.om\
To prevent respiratory issues, heart problems and in serious cases, death: According to Dr Taliercio, air purifiers help clean the air we breathe and lessen the potential negative effect of air pollution. Air pollution can either cause or worsen respiratory symptoms such as difficulty breathing, cough and in severe cases, heart problems,COPD, lung cancer and stroke.
Several studies have shown that after installing an air purifier in a classroom there was an improvement in blood pressure and heart rate of the student.
To help those with allergy or asthma breathe clean air Allergies are one of the most common chronic diseases especially amongst children. Air purifiers remove harmful particles such as pollen, dust mites, smoke and other pollutants that can trigger allergies from the air of the classroom. They *eradicate* allergy-aggravating particles from the air and tiny pollutants that have settled into your furniture, floors and walls.
With Unimech Healthcare air purifiers, you are assured of a better indoor air quality and clean air for students. Students with lung conditions, allergies and heart problems will be less afflicted and less likely to miss school or skip classes because of their illnesses. Additionally, headaches, fatigue, irritation in the eyes, throat and nose caused by air pollution is eradicated completely when Unimech air purifiers are installed in classrooms, halls, labs, libraries and every indoor space in the school environment.