On September 2, BC’s first annual Clean Air Festival occurred at Trout Lake in East Vancouver. The event is supported by Protect Our Province, Safe Schools Coalition BC, Masks4EastVan, and DoNoHarm BC. It promoted an accessible space where immunocompromised individuals can find sanctuary among peers who relate to ongoing concerns around airborne pathogens, like COVID-19, and pollutants that significantly affect air quality.
Comments closedTag: HEPA filters
Topic: CalgaryView all posts for the topic: Calgary
Absence rates due to illness double in first week and a half at Calgary public schools
Absence rates at Calgary public schools have more than doubled after the first week of school, as concerns loom over respiratory illnesses this fall and hospitals deal with an E. coli outbreak.
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
Parents call for better air quality in schools to protect against viruses, wildfire smoke
Several grassroots groups of parents, health-care workers and teachers have sprung up across Canada to lobby for safer schools, including improved air quality.
Comments closedAs the school year begins, it is past time to talk about the threat that SARS-CoV-2, the highly transmissible airborne virus that causes COVID-19, poses to the health of students.
Not only can the disease cause acute illness in youth, it can also lead to debilitating lingering symptoms, known as long COVID.
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
Covid Closed the Nation’s Schools. Cleaner Air Can Keep Them Open.
C.D.C. researchers have estimated that air purifiers may decrease the exposure to aerosols — tiny floating droplets that might contain virus — by up to 65 percent.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Parents’ group wants more COVID protections in B.C. classrooms ahead of new school year
Protect Our Province is asking for HEPA filters, mask mandates, and fast-tracked COVID vaccinations.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Dozens sign open letter urging ‘safe return to school’ amid respiratory illness concerns
With students returning to B.C. classrooms in four weeks, an open letter to the province is outlining five things the signatories say must be addressed to ensure “a safe return to school.”
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
Parents ask Ottawa’s largest school board to monitor air quality
As children are on the list of those most affected by wildfire smoke, some parents are concerned about sending their kids to school due to poor air quality.
During Tuesday night’s Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) budget meeting, Ecology Ottawa Board Chair Katie Gibbs requested that funds go to ensure better ventilation in schools.
Comments closedTopic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario
Board of health calls for Ontario to upgrade to building code ventilation standards
An Ontario board of health is asking the province to amend the building code to mandate higher standards for ventilation, in light of the spread of COVID-19.
Comments closedTopic: childrenView all posts for the topic: children
Opinion: Treating kids as invulnerable is treating them as disposable
Comments closedAre we OK with children being hospitalized for infectious diseases at far higher rates, as they have recently been? Are we fine with COVID being the No. 1 cause of infectious disease-driven death in children? Also, what if there is a number of reinfections at which average outcomes really start to worsen?
Topic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
We Need a Revolution in Clean Indoor Air
Comments closedThe thing about cleaner indoor air is that it works on any variant and any airborne disease; it helps against pollution; it helps against all kinds of things.
Topic: Corsi-Rosenthal boxesView all posts for the topic: Corsi-Rosenthal boxes
Air filter hack: Sackville groups put together DIY solution
Several Sackville groups are turning to DIY solutions to keep their spaces as virus-free as possible.
They’re making Corsi–Rosenthal boxes, a homemade air purifier system, designed to filter out airborne droplets that could carry the flu or COVID-19.
Comments closedTopic: Corsi-Rosenthal boxesView all posts for the topic: Corsi-Rosenthal boxes
This DIY air purifier costs far less than a HEPA purifier, and studies say it works
This fall, teachers and parents have been sharing photos on social media of do-it-yourself air purifiers that they’ve made for classrooms to help protect kids from COVID-19 transmission.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
B.C. needs to get serious about COVID-19 in schools: coalition
Keeping B.C. schools open without better COVID-19 protections is a recipe for disaster, a coalition of advocates says.
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
559 HEPA purifiers delivered to Yukon schools
Every Yukon school was equipped with High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) purifiers for each classroom-sized space by the first day of school, according to the Education department.
The territorial government has dealt out hundreds of HEPA air purifiers to Yukon schools since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Comments closedTopic: schoolsView all posts for the topic: schools
Opinion: Better protecting schools from COVID is within reach
Welcome to the “Live with COVID” era, where living with the virus means not talking about it at all. We’ve been told to pretend it’s over, though those “weird summer colds” and “lingering symptoms” indicate otherwise. Rising case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths. Best Summer Ever 2.0 is ending, which means kids are about to return for their third pandemic September.
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
All Yukon classrooms will have HEPA filters soon
Every Yukon classroom will have a portable air filtration unit by the end of the school year, according to the territory’s Department of Education.
Comments closedTopic: ManitobaView all posts for the topic: Manitoba
High schoolers walk out to protest lax COVID policies
High school students across Manitoba walked out of class last Monday to demand improved COVID-19 safety measures as in-person learning resumes.
Organized by the group MB Students for COVID Safety, the walkout’s demands included the option to return to remote learning if students wish and increased funding for safety measures for those who prefer in-person learning.
Comments closed