Major air pollution study in Manchester schools

A new programme has been launched to understand for the first time the impact of air pollution in schools by studying the varying levels of air quality in classrooms and how this affects school children.  

The ‘Clean Air for Schools programme’ run by Global Action Plan (GAP) and the Philips Foundation is the largest of its kind to be launched in the UK, with 20 participating schools and 6,000 students to be included in the 10-month study.

Through tailor-made teaching resources for schools that support the national curriculum and the installation of air purifiers in classes, the Philips Foundation and GAP will work with Manchester University as part of a concurrent research project to monitor the changes in air quality from purification and education. This is whilst purifying the air of the classrooms to remove toxins, viruses and pollutants. The programme will investigate changes in children’s health and academic performance. The findings of the research will inform a framework designed to help schools across the UK create clean air plans to reduce pollution and protect students.

The University of Manchester will provide air monitoring equipment and analysis to help independently understand the state of air pollution in schools, analysing the levels of pollutants in including PM 2.5, PM 10, CO2, NOx and Ozone. The team will also track for any improvements that arise from behaviour change amongst the children, teachers and parents following the use of educational activities about reducing air pollution.