Efforts to protect the health and wellbeing of children in childcare centres and schools could learn from air quality measures used to protect pets in shelters and plants in greenhouses, say a group of air quality experts.

“Surely, what is good enough for dogs, cats and plants, is good enough for our kids,” write Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska, Conjoint Professor Bin Jalaludin, Associate Professor Wendy Miller and Dr Bill Dodd. (Further bio details are beneath their article).

Lidia Morawska, Bin Jalaludin, Wendy Miller and Bill Dodd write:

As Australia enters peak flu season and new COVID-19 variants arrive, now is the time to ask why Australian schools have lower standards for air quality monitoring, ventilation and filtration than many greenhouses and pet shelters.

It sounds absurd, yet it is often the case that a cat or dog staying in an animal shelter – or even a young plant growing in a commercial greenhouse – enjoys a more carefully controlled environment than our children do in childcare centres and schools.

Schools and childcare centres are notorious settings for infectious disease outbreaks.

For air quality scientists, this is hardly surprising given the limited monitoring, ventilation and filtration of the air inside classrooms.

Most Australian schools are naturally ventilated, which means relying on opening windows to bring fresh air from outside.

But in winter, when windows and doors are firmly shut against the cold, ventilation decreases, and the air becomes thick with airborne particles carrying infectious viruses, bacteria and mould spores.

Everything the children exhale, including viruses and bacteria, is recirculated for others to inhale and become sick.

As classroom windows fog up, increased humidity promotes the growth of mould and the release of airborne spores, increasing asthma risk in young people.

Without ventilation, children can also be exposed to higher levels of fine particulate matter, formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide from unflued gas heaters in some schools, exacerbating respiratory illnesses and increasing rates of asthma.

Wide-ranging impacts

The outbreaks and health complications that result from unsafe indoor air put enormous strain on the education system, the health system and can affect learning outcomes.

Indeed, the productivity of the entire economy is hampered in winter as parents are forced to take leave or become unwell themselves.

For those who are immunocompromised or have a chronic illness, winter outbreaks can be debilitating and even life threatening.

Unfortunately, air quality problems do not end as the weather warms.

In spring and summer, the windows and doors are finally thrown open just in time for the pollen and bushfire seasons.

In this respect, even the most privileged student should envy the care and consideration bestowed on the humble cucumber growing in a modern greenhouse.

Greenhouses

A farmer’s livelihood has always hinged on their ability to keep pests and diseases at bay while optimising growing conditions.

With outdoor weather conditions becoming less predictable, farmers are increasingly moving to protected cropping systems such as greenhouses.

According to the peak body for the industry, Protected Cropping Australia, modern greenhouses seek to optimise “the plant’s growing environment, from the root zone through to the atmosphere [via] automation of vents, fans, heaters and shade”.

Amidst rising biosecurity and food security challenges, the NSW Department of Primary Industries has published guidelines for integrated pest and disease management. These recommend that:

• Every greenhouse has temperature and humidity sensors
• Air movement is between 0.2 and 0.7 cubic metres per second
• Venting capacity is between 0.25m2 to 0.40 m2 for every 1 m2 of floor area.

Remarkably, the health benefits of ventilation that we lavish on plants we appear to deny to children in classrooms.

Animal shelters

Our inconsistent standards regarding indoor air quality goes beyond greenhouses.

Even dog pounds and cat shelters are taking the lead when it comes to air filtration and infection prevention.

A new cat shelter in Ballarat uses separate air filtration systems for each ‘cat condo’.

According to Councillor Tracey Hargreaves, Mayor of Ballarat, this technology serves to “reduce the spread of infections so we can actually have shorter stays for animals [and] lower treatment costs”.

Such a measure is “pretty standard practice in new shelters”, she added.

The fact that we do not extend the benefits of ventilation and filtration to children in classrooms was not lost on the interviewer, Debbie Rybicki from ABC Ballarat.

“It did strike me as ironic that as a society, we seem to be treating cats better than our own children because they sit in groups of up to 30 people in poorly ventilated spaces at school,” she said.

Towards safer air in schools

Indoor air quality is a glaring gap in Australia’s approach to public health.

Because we spend more than 90 percent of our lives indoors, the air quality inside buildings can have a significant impact on health at a population scale.

Economists estimate that improved indoor air quality could return between $12-$25 billion dollars annually to the Australian economy from increased productivity and labour supply.

Their analysis only included productivity benefits from reduced COVID-19 infections and long-COVID. The true benefits of cleaner indoor air are certainly much greater if we include reductions in other infections such as influenza.

Some Australian jurisdictions have initiated interventions regarding cleaner air in classrooms: the Victorian Government’s Air Purifier Program and the NSW Government’s Clean Air Schools program, for example.

However, a national, coordinated process of reform is required to ensure all children receive the benefits of cleaner indoor air.

For example, while fire alarms are mandated in all public buildings in Australia, there are no requirements for sensors that monitor key air quality and ventilation indicators such as PM2.5 and carbon dioxide, as recommended by leading experts.

Consequently, there is a lack of enforceable performance standards for indoor air quality in schools and a lack of investment in ventilation and air purification.

To its credit, the Australian Government is actively considering the issue, especially as a means to safeguard against future pandemics.

Retrofitting Australian classrooms to ensure kids can breathe fresh air will be costly. Yet the investment pales in comparison to the enormous burden of medical care, missed school days, and lost productivity.

Farmers can attest to the productivity dividends associated with healthier indoor environments.

“The cost of automated equipment and computer control systems can generally be recovered within a couple of seasons through savings in labour and better crop production,” explains the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

Surely, what is good enough for dogs, cats and plants is good enough for our kids.

Author details

Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska, Australian Laureate Fellow in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health (ILAQH), Centre Director of ARC Training Centre for Advanced Building Systems Against Airborne Infection Transmission (THRIVE), and Chief Investigator in the Centre for Safe Air.

Conjoint Professor Dr Bin Jalaludin, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, and Chief Investigator in the Centre for Safe Air.

Associate Professor Wendy Miller, THRIVE at the QUT Faculty of Science

Dr Bill Dodd, Knowledge Broker at the Centre for Safe Air based at the University of Tasmania’s Menzies Institute for Medical Research

 

Source: Croakey Health Media

(Ambassador Contribution)

 

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