The University of Connecticut has received $11.5 million from the state of Connecticut that will be used to build and install low-cost air purifiers, according to UConn Today. UConn will be delivering and installing these purifiers in every public school classroom across the state.
The State Bond Commission approved funding for the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative on Oct. 22. This funding comes as a part of Supplemental Air Filtration for Education Supplemental under the Clean Air Equity Response Program (SAFE-CT), an initiative from the state to improve air filtration, according to UConn Today.
The air purifiers that will be installed are Corsi-Rosenthal air purifiers, which are “do-it-yourself” air purifiers that cost only $60, a much lower price compared to other air purifiers, according to UConn Today.
According to UConn Today, the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative has been researching new air purifiers for several years and has been able to create an air purifier that is “incredibly effective.” Through joint testing, the Environmental Protection Agency and UConn found that the devices were able to remove over 99 percent of airborne viruses, including COVID-19, within 60 minutes.
Marina Creed, the director of the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative, and Todd Campbell, a UConn professor who led the research into the air purifiers, talked about the air purifiers and the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative in an email interview.
Campbell talked about the process that the initiative went through in order to get funded.
“After 3 years of community engaged partnerships, real world and laboratory studies, our team engaged with policymakers at the 1st annual UConn-led Moving Forward inCHIP conference in January 2024,” Campbell said.
“Our team presented our initiative and findings to the education committee, and we urged that the state support do-it-yourself STEM air purifiers and our [SAFE-CT] program, giving all public schools access to clean indoor air, while continuing to urge funding for full HVAC overhaul as the long term solution,” Campbell said. “We were ultimately asked to administer a new grants-in-aid program to all state public schools, providing them with the materials, education, and training to create and study their own air purifiers with STEM lesson plans.”
Campbell also talked about what the $11.5 million dollars will go towards.
“Beyond the installation of the new air filtration devices in classrooms, a relatively small amount of the funding will be dedicated to the development of STEM-focused curriculum that teachers can use to engage students in learning about air quality, so that as they recognize these devices in their classrooms they are also able to better understand how they work and why they are important for their classroom and potentially their community more broadly,” Campbell said.
Campbell also talked about the benefits that this will bring to school districts that receive small amounts of funding.
“In schools that are disproportionately funded, prioritizing the installation of these filters in all classrooms is one small step toward ensuring more equitable access to clean air,” Campbell said.
The UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative is also working on reaching other goals besides installing air purifiers in Connecticut schools, according to Creed.
“The Indoor Air Quality Initiative has also partnered with other community groups… to improve indoor air in both community spaces and individual residences,” Creed said. “We are looking at improving federal health policy to support these STEM-lesson air purifiers and becoming a model for other states and state universities to provide value back to the communities that fund them.”
According to Creed, the initiative also wants to continue studying the long-term effects of these new air purifiers.
“We are interested in studying the health impacts of these air purifiers, including on neurological conditions we see at UConn Health’s Department of Neurology, such as migraine headaches which can be triggered by poor indoor and outdoor air quality, especially wildfires.”
For more information about the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative, visit the initiative’s website.