Good Classroom Ventilation Linked To Reduction of Absenteeism Due To Illness

A new study suggests that good classroom ventilation could reduce student absenteeism due to illness by 3.4 percent.

Scientists have once again proven the health benefits of breathing fresh air and living in a properly ventilated environment. According to a new study that looked at the extensive data on ventilation rates collected from more than 150 classrooms in California over two years, a proper ventilated classroom reduces student absenteeism due to illness by 3.4 percent.

The study was conducted by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and received funding from the California Energy Commission.

Scientists reveal that this reduction of absenteeism could help schools gain $33 million annually in attendance-linked funding and families would save up to $80 million annually from not having to pay caretakers to take care of their sick child at home while parents go out to work.

"Our overall findings suggest that, if you increased ventilation rates of classrooms up to the state standard, or even above it, you would get net benefits to schools, to families, to everybody, at very low cost," said Berkeley Lab scientist Mark Mendell. "It's really a win-win situation."

For the study, scientists collected data from 162 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classrooms in 28 schools in three California school districts in the Central Valley, the Bay Area and the south coast and found that most of the classrooms didn't meet the ventilation standards of California which states that schools need to provide a ventilation rate of 7.1 liters per second per person. The overall finding from all three districts was that for every additional 1 liter/second/person of ventilation provided to a classroom, illness absence declined by 1.6 percent, with the benefit continuing at least up to 15 liters/second/person, more than double the state standard. "It turns out 1.6 percent fewer absences is very important when you're talking about lots of people," Mendell said.

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