DPS Installs New Air Filters In Classrooms To Reduce COVID-19 Particles

More than 20 schools in Denver will have cleaner air in their classrooms after Denver Public Schools (DPS) installed high-efficiency air filters throughout the district, according to 9NEWS.

As they have started to resume in-person learning for the spring semester, the district received help from CU Boulder who installed the new air filters.

The high-efficiency air filters feature a new design that is better at reducing particles in classrooms, which includes COVID-19 particles.

The Carrier's Healthy Buildings Program provided the district with filters for research.

Researchers will monitor how the filters work throughout the spring semester. Their goal is to make the air in classrooms as clean as it is outdoors.

"In terms of public health protection, this is real, this is now," Environmental Engineering Professor Mark Hernandez told 9NEWS. "This is really translating stuff into practice."

According to Professor Hernandez, his team of students analyzing data has had promising results so far.

"We spent most of Christmas break monitoring what's the background when there's nobody there," said Hernandez. "The hope is we can keep those particle levels close to background. You can never get it to background. But at least to a good air quality day in Denver."

Hernadez says the team also wants to get the new air filters in DPS buildings with older infrastructure. Many of those older buildings have poor ventilation.

"For this virus that travels through the air the ventilation is key," he said. "These filters supplement the ventilation system in the older buildings to bring them up to those modern buildings with great ventilation."

He hopes additional funding from the second COVID-19 relief package will be used to expand their study.

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