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Posted by tangjurine 3/31/2025

Installing air filters in classrooms has surprisingly large educational benefits (2020)(www.vox.com)
308 points | 142 commentspage 2
amai 3/31/2025|
Many air filters are generating annoying sounds. You get better air, but the distraction by the constant noise of the filter might be more than counter productive.
brody_hamer 3/31/2025|
My first thought was the exact opposite. Ambient noise in classroom (from other students) can be very distracting, and I wonder if adding white noise helps kids to focus (in the same way that accoustic dampening would)
yoshuaw 3/31/2025||
A study published just yesterday [1] showed that just two airborne diseases [2] were responsible for approximately 85% of all sicks days in Greece during 2023-2024. Disregarding the common-sense argument that reducing collective suffering is a good thing overall - even by the cold hard logic of capital, being able to reduce company sick days by up to 85% is a huge opportunity.

Imo we're way overdue standards and controls for clean indoor air that are on par with standards for drinking water and food. Like this article shows, we have the tech to provide clean air today. All we're missing is policy to uniformly deploy it.

[1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01966...

[2]: SARS-CoV-19: ~75% of sick days, Influenza: ~10% of sick days

socksy 4/1/2025|
Might this be related to the fact that Greeks tend not to take sick days compared to other European countries[1]? Not coming to work because you have covid is far more culturally accepted (and maybe expected) than a common cold.

[1]: https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1255154/greek-work-ethi...

knotimpressed 3/31/2025||
Does anyone have any details on what kind of filter this was? I bought a relatively high-MERV filter for my home, but I’m wondering what I should actually be trying to filter out.
PaulKeeble 3/31/2025||
MERV 13's are optimal for particle removal because compared to a HEPA some of the removal requires multiple passes but the filters are a lot less restrictive and allow higher airflow. Corsi and Rosenthal looked into this with the CR box and came to the conclusion its technically faster at clearing a room than using HEPA standard filters. For infections and damaging PM2.5 particles mechanical filtration with MERV13 is the best you are going to get.

You could also add potentially get a HEPA with a carbon filter which will get rid of volatile organic compounds which can also be damaging (but also just be the smell of food) but they don't tend to be as effective and depending on the mix of VOCs verses particles one filter may run out before the other and carbon really doesn't capture all that much or well. It is a good way to get rid of smell at least for a while.

There is a whole world of different standards for filtration for industrial and hazard chemicals which the FFP2/3 and N95 standards for Personal Protective Equipment respirators will lead you into if you want to go into that rabbit hole, but for a household typically its mostlt about Particulate matter, Volatile organic compounds and CO2. CO2 is about bringing in fresh air from outside.

Then when outside of the household N95/99 or FFP2/3 respitators do the same job in unclean air environments which is basically everywhere, outside or indoors in public places pretty much never meet the World Health Organisations levels for PM2.5 and often exceed CO2 (a proxy for re-breathing and a high change of viral infection spread) standards too.

permo-w 3/31/2025||
for infections you can use UVC, which is something people often overlook, although of course that has its downsides
Aurornis 3/31/2025|||
The paper is here: https://edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/Gilraine_Air...

I didn't see the model specified. They also said some schools got carbon filters, which is a different type of filter.

There's footnote saying many filters weren't even installed because some teachers thought they made the air "too dry", which is major placebo effect at work (air purifiers don't extract moisture from the air).

The entire paper is really not good quality, to be honest.

You can get a small HEPA purifier for a single room to remove particulates. The size of the filter, noise level, and amount of air moved are things to look for. Stepping up to activated carbon would remove VOCs, but cost significantly more (see IQAir, Austin Air, but ignore the cheap models that don't have 10-20lbs or more of activated carbon).

fifteenforty 3/31/2025||
Higher does not necessarily mean better. Higher grade filters filter more in each pass, but can overall provide worse performance as the air flow rate goes down. The air is being recirculated in a portable unit or in a standard domestic ducted heating/cooling situation.
dang 3/31/2025||
Related. Others?

A review of the effects of installing air filters in classrooms - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22006595 - Jan 2020 (26 comments)

Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22006033 - Jan 2020 (48 comments)

PaulKeeble 3/31/2025||
There have been some classroom studies in the UK showing a reduction in illness as well. They were a bit better run than this because they had some some pupils in filtered air and some not and even with the mixing at break time the reduction of illness met clinical significance. Given Covid is doing its thing all year around its quite an easy thing to do to drastically reduce the time teachers and pupils spend away from school and its a fairly easy measure to adopt. They do need to have the filters running however and that will involve explaining to the teachers how they work and why they are needed because in a lot of studies compliance has been a big issue usually due to misinformation rather than issues with the devices.
joeevans1000 3/31/2025||
i'm sure it's because they were white noise generators essentially.
culopatin 3/31/2025||
I wonder how smart I’d be if I didn’t sit in a classroom full of metal tables that got painted with such a thick layer of oil paint that it stunk of paint thinner until Spring
LorenPechtel 3/31/2025|
Yeah, I got driven out of college by one bad building. (This was back before it was understood that a building can be a problem.) I simply couldn't think properly while in it. A problem with classes, a showstopper when the labs were in the building. I'm sure I would have flunked out if I had tried to take those classes. I have no idea what I was reacting to but there sure was something. (It felt a lot like one house where I had the same sense of something bad walking in the door--and long later a wall full of black mold was discovered.)
tehjoker 3/31/2025||
Given that SARS2 affects cognition negatively, I would expect schools with universal air filtration to have larger improvements than we would have expected prior.
Animats 3/31/2025||
What are they "filtering"? You can filter particulates, but methane removal is more complicated.
MemexXx 3/31/2025|
Now let's see if the filters are not changed in a while, and how that effects the studies (not on purpose, I'm guessing that the upkeep is not very good with filters in general)
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