How Does Indoor Air Quality Affect Students’ Learning?
Exposure to indoor pollutants and inadequate management of indoor temperature and relative humidity can affect student, teacher, and staff health and performance. • Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can cause illnesses requiring school absences and can cause acute health symptoms that decrease performance while at school • Statistics demonstrate that poor IAQ can reduce a person’s ability to perform specific mental tasks requiring concentration, calculation, or memory • Evidence suggests that individuals who experience two symptoms of discomfort perceive a reduction in their own performance. That perception increases as the number of symptoms increases, averaging a three percent loss in performance with three symptoms, and an 8 percent loss with five symptoms • Research suggests that students cannot concentrate as well, and report more health symptoms, in classrooms with low ventilation rates. Low ventilation rates can be a sign of high indoor pollutant levels because adequate ventilation
