Calls increase for HEPA air filters in Canadian classrooms

Key takeaways: 

• ‘I think that the time for this is yesterday,’ states Alberta mother.
• HEPA-filtered air purifiers in a Toronto public school can lower the concentration of several viruses in the air by seizing small particles, such as the moisture droplets that can hold the coronavirus.

Demand for HEPA air purifiers increase: 

As the favourably transmissible Omicron variant fuels record-high case counts, and schools across Canada postpone in-person education, calls are rising for another coating of protection to be added to classrooms — HEPA filters. 

Air purifiers with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters can decrease the concentration of several viruses in the air by grabbing small particles, such as the water droplets that can have the coronavirus.

Jill Davies-Shaw’s daughter is in Grade Six at Glenora School in Edmonton. 

Read more: Alberta’s quarantine duration for COVID-19 cases decreases from 10 days to five today

In the fall, she and other parents fundraised to purchase a transportable purifier with a HEPA filter for the classroom. 

Davies-Shaw states, with more exposure that the coronavirus is airborne, there was worry about sending her daughter to in-person education every day.

“Concerning about virus building up throughout the day and certainly in a classroom, especially in a space where children are removing masks to eat lunch, where they’re spending a long time throughout the day — that was something that just made sense,” she stated. Source – cbc.ca