Courtesy Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment

All Utah daycares, pre-K schools and K-12 schools can get free air purifiers for their classrooms until the end of July. The statewide project is available to public and private schools, includes installation and is headed by Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment working with the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.

Brian Moench, president and co-founder of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, said approximately 70% of Utah schools have the air purifiers installed, which leaves “240,000 children who aren’t getting the benefits of those air purifiers.”

The project is funded with grants from the federal government and can not be accessed after the month’s end.

“We’re making a last vigorous push to try and get all the schools that have not yet signed up for the program enrolled in it because it would be a real shame if hundreds of thousands of Utah children were left without the benefits of this program when it’s for free,” Moench said. “Four or five years ago, we started publicly calling for the legislature to start putting air purifiers in school classrooms, not only because of the research that showed that air pollution had a toxic effect on brain function and brain development, but there is even more specific research showing that air pollution affects a person’s ability to think.”

Utah HHS contacted the organization in early 2022, asking them to create an infrastructure to put air purifiers in every classroom across the state. While Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment long advocated for air purifiers and other measures in schools — Moench said air pollution can affect memory and cognitive functioning — legislators became receptive to the plan when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Courtesy Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment

“In an effort to control the transmission of COVID-19 the federal government provided federal funds for various COVID mitigation strategies, one of which was to place air purifiers and upgrade ventilation systems in schools,” Moench said.

A large portion of these funds went toward providing COVID testing. An additional $80 million left after funding statewide testing was allocated for installing air purifiers. Moench said they have not used anywhere close to the full $80 million, and any funds not used by July 31st will no longer be available.

While a full list of schools taking advantage of the program is not available, the organization notes that the purifiers have been placed in 60% of classrooms. Parents and teachers can contact Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment on their website to inquire about the program. It can also help parents request filters if their children’s school has not yet requested purifiers.

“We can help them contact whoever at that district or that school is making the decision because we’re hoping that parents will put some pressure on administrators to sign up for this program if the school hasn’t already done so,” he said.

Michael Gilraine, assistant professor of economics at New York University, testified in a Connecticut Senate hearing that air purifiers positively affect children’s test scores.

“Air filter exposure led to a 0.10-0.20 standard deviation increase in mathematics and English scores,” he said.

Moench explained Gilraine’s research further, saying it “showed that the placement of air purifiers in schools, even when the background levels of pollution were below Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, affected students’ test scores and their performance over the academic year.”

The air purifiers are meant to be placed in all schools, not just ones whose air pollution crosses the threshold of being a danger to children. Moench explained that low levels of pollution can still impact a child’s brain and do permanent damage.

“They’re exposed to that pollution with every breath they take throughout the entire day. So that might help a person understand that there’s not as much difference between smoking as there is compared to community air pollution in terms of the overall health impact,” Moench said. “That’s why it’s important to get as much pollution out of the atmosphere as possible. But in particular, for school children.”

Schools can schedule air purifier installations in their schools by emailing Brandi O’Brien, senior program coordinator for Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment at brandi@uphe.org.

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