The Delhi government on Tuesday decided to keep in “abeyance” its directive to schools in the city to install air purifiers for combating air pollution.
The Directorate of Education (DoE), however, did not specify any reason for suspending the directive within a few days of issuing it.
‘Impractical’
The decision comes in the backdrop of many schools raising concern that the “massive” exercise could cost them a lot of money.
Environment experts welcomed the move to withdraw the decision saying that installing air purifiers in classrooms was “impractical”, given that it is not an air-locked environment, and could trigger a spike in the levels of carbon dioxide — instead of containing air pollution.
Anumita Roychowdhury, an executive director of the Centre for Science and Environment and the head of its air pollution and clean transport programme, said that a classroom was a dynamic environment and installing air purifiers would not be the best way to protect children.
“If a child spends close to eight hours in a confined environment with an air purifier running, there would be a build-up of CO2 that would cause fatigue, and health of the children would be severely compromised,” she said.
Sunil Dahiya, campaigner with Greenpeace India, said that steps need to be taken to reduce air pollution at the source and measures like wearing masks, installing air purifiers and reducing outdoor activity for students should be last-resort measures.
‘Health hazard’
“Any environment that lets air in from the outside, like most classrooms, are not conducive for air purifiers to work properly. If all doors and windows are closed to make the machine run, the ambient air would create a health hazard,” he said.
On April 26, the DoE circular had directed principals of schools to install air purifiers and submit a compliance report within 15 days. The circular had read: “The air quality of Delhi needs to be improved. In view of the gravity of harm to human health due to inferior air quality, improvement by even a decimal would go a long way in improving public health. Thus, schools should take action to install air filters as per need”.
The circular had also asked schools to “create social awareness on the adverse impact on public health due to indiscriminate burning of crackers for different festivities” and to take steps through co-curricular activities to encourage kids to co-operate in improving the air quality in the Capital.
