Will Clem – Updated on Apr 02, 2008 – SCMP
A green group has launched a campaign to monitor the air quality in schools across the city.
Clear the Air Hong Kong, an environmental pressure group, is offering schools a free assessment of pollution levels in classrooms and expert advice on how to minimise the impact on health.
The project, which the group hopes will gain the support of all primary and secondary schools, will be unveiled today but is expected to take several months to complete.
“The first phase will run until the end of June and then we plan to start up again in September,” chairman Christian Masset said. We want to include as many schools as possible.”
Mr Masset said people tended to underestimate the effect indoor air quality had on health. “We seldom think about pollution indoors,” he said. “But it has been proven that it can be responsible for various kinds of problems. Young people are most likely to be affected.”
Mr Masset said there were steps schools could take to reduce the amount of pollution getting into the classroom and this had been shown to improve students’ health.
“Educators notice that students demonstrate better performance in class and they are sick less often,” he said.
An investigation by the Sunday Morning Post last October found pollution levels were almost as high indoors as they were outdoors at three out of the four schools tested.
Indoor levels of respirable suspended particulates ranged between 76 per cent and 98 per cent of the levels in the playground at the three worst-affected schools.