Nearly half of America’s kids live in counties with unhealthy air pollution levels, according to a recent American Lung Association report. Most people picture that as an outdoor problem, but the EPA reports that indoor air is two to five times more polluted than outdoor air. That’s a serious issue for schoolchildren, who spend about 90 percent of their day indoors.
Insulation Institute talked with Dr. John Ryan, Chief Strategy Officer at Allergy Standards Limited, and Buddy Combs, Specification Specialist for Knauf, about why indoor air quality needs year-round attention, how ventilation, moisture management, and material selection lead to healthier classrooms, and how school buildings can support student wellness and performance.
Why Indoor Air Quality Matters for Student Health
Research[1] shows that particle pollution and ozone exposure are dangerous to humans at every stage of life, increasing the risk of premature birth, worsening lung and heart disease, and shortening life spans. Pollutants and poor IAQ can also affect cognitive ability, especially in young children.
That effect on learning is significant, and with an estimated 54.4 million K-12 students returning to U.S. classrooms in recent weeks, understanding how increasingly airtight buildings, reduced natural ventilation, VOCs, and improper installation can affect school buildings and young learners is key.
Why Schools are Rethinking Building Design
“In the last couple of years, schools are increasingly thinking about how to design the built environment to reduce risk, improve indoor air quality, and student well-being,” said Dr. Ryan. “COVID brought many of the issues to the forefront, including preventing negative bioaerosols from impacting health, but there’s also an increased awareness of the importance of reducing the impact of VOCS and improving ventilation to reduce pollutants indoors.”
Dr. Ryan says this intervention should start with design. “Designers and specifiers are of course responding to cost-conscious builders, but increasingly innovators are out ahead advocating for the end user, he said – meaning more forethought around health, wellbeing, and IAQ improvement. “The biggest filters in buildings are the humans occupying them. You are breathing and acting as a filter whenever you’re indoors, so the less harmful the materials, the better.”
Combs, who works with building specifiers, agrees that the mindset is shifting. “It used to be that builders focused first on ‘how much extra this is costing me,” he said. “But attention to building construction as a way to improve health and wellbeing has grown exponentially — you see it in initiatives from many organizations, like ASHRAE, which now has an IAQ Committee that focuses on construction more broadly. Every element added to a building can affect IAQ, and this additive impact is now amplified as we address air quality in buildings.”
Rising Asthma Risk Raises the Stakes
The need to improve IAQ has only grown more urgent in recent years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asthma prevalence rose from roughly 7.4 percent (20.3 million people) in 2001 to about 8 percent (28 million people) today. In response, many manufacturers, including fiberglass and mineral wool insulation manufacturers, have their products independently tested for low VOC emissions and allergy- and asthma-friendliness. These products bear labels such as asthma- and allergy-friendly or GREENGUARD certified, making them more suitable for sensitive students and staff by restricting dust, fiber release, and VOC spikes.
“Insulation was once thought of as a commodity product, but increasingly, it’s part of a solution to better air quality and a legitimate way to contribute to better health outcomes,” Combs noted.
Tighter Buildings Demand Better Practices, Products, and Ventilation
Growing attention to occupant health has increased the importance of sound building science, moisture control, better installation practices, lower VOCS, and increased mechanical ventilation.
“There are two ways for schools and other buildings to address IAQ: fix a problem or don’t create one from the start,” Combs added. “We’re slowly getting the message across.”
This means forethought in minimizing building risks and reducing contaminants has to be part of the plan from day one, not an afterthought.
“When your water runs brown, you know something is wrong. But you can’t see poor indoor air quality, and you are the biggest filter in a building,” Dr. Ryan said. “Our focus should be on avoiding contaminant exposure in the first place rather than filtering it out after the fact.”
What Building Professionals Can Do
Healthier schools start at the drawing board. Architects, specifiers, and contractors directly influence whether a building creates an IAQ problem or prevents one. Here’s how to address IAQ for healthier school buildings:
- Make IAQ a design requirement, not an afterthought. Build moisture control, mechanical ventilation, and low-VOC materials into the spec from the earliest project phase.
- Choose third-party certified, low-emission products. Prioritize insulation and other building materials that are independently verified as low-emitting or allergy- and asthma-friendly.
- Get installation right the first time. Train crews to install insulation correctly and verify proper air sealing and installation.
- Treat every school renovation as an IAQ opportunity: Aging buildings with poor air sealing are exactly where design and product choices can have the biggest impact on student health.
The tools to build healthier schools already exist. What’s needed now is building professionals willing to put IAQ at the center of every design decision before the first wall goes up.
[1] https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/air-quality-energy-and-health/health-impacts