Education/Schools

Comprehensive Monitoring For Your Indoor Environmental Quality

Education institutions today face numerous challenges in maintaining a healthy indoor environment for students and staff. Since they spend a large amount of time inside school buildings, it’s vital to adhere to proper levels of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) to ensure the right level of health and comfort is met. This includes thermal comfort, lighting, acoustic and the indoor air quality.

Poor indoor air quality can cause a range of health issues, including headaches, allergies, and respiratory problems. This can negatively impact student and staff performance and well-being, leading to decreased productivity and higher absenteeism rates.

Common sources of indoor air pollution within schools and universities include:

• Synthetic building materials and furnishings
• Arts and crafts materials
• Printers and copiers
• Cleaning chemicals and aerosol sprays

Studies show that symptoms of Building Related Illnesses (BRI) may be caused or exacerbated by indoor air quality problems – with children spending more awake hours in school than they do at home it is imperative to stay ahead of BRI and monitor classrooms IEQ while being prepared with a plan of action if problems arise. 

You can read here how large multi-building campuses can deal with the key challenges connected to the indoor envoironment, from occupants' well-being to energy effiency.

How to Improve Indoor Air Quality

• To identify the sources of indoor air pollution and the areas that require improvement, it is essential to carry out a comprehensive indoor air quality assessment
• Proper ventilation is one of the key elements in maintaining good indoor air quality. Ensure the school has a regular routine maintenance check-up on the HVAC system. Try to provide at least 2 years of prior maintenance logs available for an inspector’s use
• Safeguarding fresh air intake is being continuously suppled to classrooms while students are present. CO₂ concentrations should never exceed 700ppm (parts per million) over outdoor concentration
• Temperature in classrooms should be between 68° F (20°C) and 78° F (26°C) with a 68% humidity rate
• Cleanliness in classrooms
  • Furniture – making sure all fabric is properly cleaned and maintained
  • Scented candles or air fresheners – not recommended. Cause for irritation in lungs
  • Carpet vacuums should meet HEPA filtration standards
  • Water intrusion or mold should be investigated immediately upon findings
  • Animals in classrooms should be cleaned properly and regularly
  • To minimize the impact of cleaning products, it is important to choose low-emission cleaning products and properly store them

Following the above suggestions, education institutions can ensure a healthy and productive indoor environment for students and staff. TSI is dedicated to helping schools achieve optimal indoor air quality by providing cutting-edge indoor air quality and sound level monitoring instrumentation and support. Check out TSI Solutions to help you achieve your IEQ maintenance program.