As such, BSN spent its Christmas and New Year holiday fitting the new filtration system throughout the second and third floors of the school, with installation on the first and fourth floors to follow at a later date. The new investiture, similar to those employed in hospitals and semiconductor fabrication plants, maintains a slightly greater air pressure inside than outside, by slowly filling the building with perfectly filtered air, much like filling a balloon.
BSN is confident that AQI levels will be very close to zero throughout the installation area, while also going to pains to point out that, contractually, Environment Assured is bound to deliver, “PM2.5 levels of less than 10 ug/m3”.
It would appear the school has reason to be confident. Having joined Nord Anglia Education earlier this year, BSN can draw on the experience of other schools in the group utilising the Environment Assured system, safe also in the knowledge that the CleanFlow system has been installed in all diplomatic residences in Beijing to meet standards for a country well known for some of the world’s cleanest air; New Zealand.
Everything comes at a cost, however. The Nanjinger has learned that the total for the first phase of this new air filtration system at BSN, together with associated costs, such as upgrades to pollution-control doors throughout the school, comes in at close to ¥3 million.
Money aside, when air quality hits the headlines, more often than not, it is PM2.5 on which people’s concerns are concentrated. That which is often forgotten is the level of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂). As people exhale CO₂, levels thereof throughout the day can rise dramatically, leading to many feeling woozy, especially in the afternoon. Hint; it’s not the big lunch they ate.
Thomson revealed, “Current evidence shows that the carbon dioxide levels found in a sealed classroom can reduce cognitive function by as much as 90 percent, causing negative impacts on teaching and learning”.
As a result, BSN is also installing CO₂ filters in its new system, something which headmaster, Matthew Shepherd, hopes shall increase student alertness and be reflected in even better academic results.