Air purifiers in schools and nurseries

The ever increasing number of new corona infections and the will not to have to close schools and kindergartens in the coming autumn and winter seasons have made experts question the ventilation concept previously presented by the ministers of education.

Over 11 million students and 800,000 teachers

That the implementation of the ventilation concept, which recommends pushing at least 5 minutes every 20 minutes and lateral ventilation during the breaks, is unrealistic in the cold season, could also have caught the attention of the ministers of education. At least two new studies on the subject of ventilation concepts and air purifiers in schools say so.

Just ventilation is not enough

The from the University of the Bundeswehr (German Federal Armed Forces)in Study published in preprint concludes that brief ventilations cannot significantly reduce the viral load in classrooms.

Ventilation for 3 - 5 minutes is by no means sufficient and only has an effect if there is as great a temperature difference as possible between inside and outside and it is correspondingly windy.

High-quality and efficient air purifiers as a recommendation

Since continuous ventilation is not sensible in the cold season, the researchers come to the conclusion that highly efficient air purifiers should be used in classrooms.

So occupies one current study by the University of Frankfurtthat the risk of infection in classrooms can be significantly reduced with powerful air purifiers.

In a test with 27 schoolchildren it was shown that an air purifier was able to remove 90% of the potentially harmful aerosols from the air.

Quick and targeted action is required

It seems clear that the ministers of education are now primarily required to solve this problem. Until recently, Bavaria was the only country to initiate funding for high-quality air purifiers with HEPA filters (H14). Recently, North Rhine-Westphalia has also been supporting the purchase of air purifiers in schools and is also promoting them through the so-called bridging aid for the catering trade.

According to the University of Frankfurt, the direction is clear - air purifiers with HEPA filters belong in schools this winter.