79: The Benefits of Clean Air in Schools

Lisa Beres 0:02

Hi friends and welcome to today's show. If you are a parent, you do not want to miss this episode. Have you ever stopped to consider the quality of air your child is breathing in every single day in their classroom? If so, you don't want to miss this because we are talking about the fact that air quality can affect IQ test scores, cognitive development, and even trigger respiratory illnesses like asthma and allergies. We're talking with Glory Dolphin Hammes from IQAir North America, and you're going to be shocked to find out the correlation between test scores and indoor air quality so stay tuned.

Narrator 0:42

How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to the Healthy Home Hacks podcast where we firmly believe in joining optimal health shouldn't be a luxury. Healthy Home authorities and husband and wife team Ron and Lisa will help you create a home environment that will level up your health. It's time to hear from the experts. Listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts, baubiologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans and avocado aficionados, Ron and Lisa Beres

Lisa Beres 1:27

Friends, it is time to stop breathing in harmful biological and chemical contaminants. It's time to take control of your health, breathe better, and sleep more soundly. This episode of Healthy Home Hacks is brought to you by IQAir first and air quality. IQAir is the top air quality technology company and has been around for over 60 years. In fact, they provide the largest global air quality platform. In addition, they're the maker of award winning medical grade air filtration solutions that are Swiss made high performance air purifiers with something called hyper HEPA filtration technology. This technology removes 99.5% of airborne particles down to point 003 microns guides that's as microscopic as the smallest virus plus their filters last 38% longer than ordinary filters and are individually tested and certified. In fact, it's the air purifier we personally use and trust. Whether you're looking for a portable air purifier for your home, your office, your car, a whole house filtration system that fits right into your Hvac system, or an air quality monitor for your home. They've got you covered. Visit IQAir online at www.iqair.com to download their air quality app today and to find the ideal home air purifier for your needs. Oh and don't forget to head to ronandlisa.com to enter for a chance to win your own IQAir quality air monitors.

Ron Beres 3:01

With just about a month left of this school year. Before we know it, it'll be back to school time again brimming with the excitement of new clothes, notebooks, backpacks, and the nervous excitement for kids and parents alike. But if you ever stopped to consider the quality of air your child is breathing every day in their classroom. It's a fact that indoor air quality can affect IQ test scores, cognitive development, even during prenatal exposure, and trigger respiratory illnesses like asthma and allergies. nearly 26 million people in the US suffer from asthma. This equates to one in 13 people. It's a leading chronic disease in children. And currently there are about 4.8 million children under the age of 18 with asthma.

Lisa Beres 3:52

Yeah, and in terms of allergies, more than 100 million people in the US experienced various types of allergies each year. Allergies are the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the US. So it's clear to see the importance of breathing and clean, fresh air now more than ever, but it's not just asthma and allergies were talking about the EPA and its Science Advisory Board have consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental health risks to public health. Contamination can come from a variety of sources, including mold, carcinogenic fibers like fiberglass and asbestos, formaldehyde dander, pollen, bacteria, dust, dust mites, smoke and smog and even VOCs that off gassing furnishings and cleaning products to air fresheners and building materials just to name a few. But did you know poor indoor air quality can also affects cognitive function, not just adults, or children and teens too.

Ron Beres 4:53

According to IQAir research revealed that breathing polluted air could impair memory and reason for reduced academic performance and even lower intelligence. Today, we're thrilled to bring back Glory Dolphin Hammes, CEO of IQAir North America, and we're picking up from the episode 75, where we discussed how air quality affects our sleep. Today, we're diving deeper into the importance of air quality in schools, and how it's affecting children. As you know, Glory is an expert in environmental control, certified indoor environmentalist, and a licensed Hvac contractor.

Lisa Beres 5:33

Glory's inspiration and passion for clean air for all led to the IQAir Foundation, a nonprofit focused on providing clean air for kids, focusing on air quality, filtration, technology and monitoring in schools located in the most polluted communities in the US, which we are going to dive deep into today. Oh, and guys, listeners, we have big news to share with you. So hang on to the end to receive a very special discount for Healthy Home Hacks, listeners, and a chance to win your own IQAir air visual monitors for your home and outdoors. That's a $569 value.

Ron Beres 6:13

Yes. And welcome back to the show Glory.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 6:17

Thank you for having me, guys. It's good to be back.

Lisa Beres 6:20

Hey, we are so happy to have you. Welcome back, Glory. And this is a really important topic. I know, as a mother of two sons, it's gonna be really near and dear to your heart. So let's dive right in.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 6:32

All right.

Ron Beres 6:34

Can you describe to our listeners, what an IQAair Clean Air Facility is?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 6:40

Yes, absolutely. So a Clean Air Facility is a facility that not only has air cleaning technology, but it also has air quality monitoring. And that's 24/7. So we monitor the air quality indoors, and also outdoors, which we establish what's called baseline for, and we are constantly measuring and comparing the outdoor air to the indoor air and a clean air facility has over 90% cleaner air indoors as compared to outdoors.

Ron Beres 7:16

Wow. What do you test for Glory specifically?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 7:19

We test for two things we test for what's called particulate matter, PM 2.5. We also at times when it's optional, we test for what's called TVOCs. Total volatile organic compounds. And we're consistently measuring co2, which stands for carbon dioxide, and it measures the amount of oxygen or lack of oxygen within the indoor space.

Lisa Beres 7:46

Hmm, really important. Okay. And under this facility, would that include any structure or just commercial or residential? What kind of falls under that umbrella?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 7:57

Yeah, so commercial structures fall under that umbrella. So any sort of commercial space, sometimes industrial space as well. Schools, there's clean air schools, and we also offer clean air homes as well.

Lisa Beres 8:12

Nice. Okay. Very important. Very, very important, especially with sick building syndrome. And just so many pollutants, people don't really think about the carpet, the paint, the furniture, that off gases, even the electronics, the cleaning products that they're using, and all of the things that not just a lot of people when you talk about indoor air quality, they go mold. Yeah, that's one part of it. But obviously, there's such a big umbrella. So Glory, can you explain how IQAir collaborates with schools to help their facilities become clean air schools?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 8:44

Sure. So we collaborate directly with schools. We collaborate also sometimes with community groups that nominate a school, actually to become a clean air school. And that could be because they're in what's called an impacted area. And these impacted areas are more polluted than the air around them, and they suffer a higher degree of burden to air pollution than other surrounding communities. So sometimes, these community groups actually nominate a school for clean air.

Lisa Beres 9:19

Okay, that's interesting. So any school can be nominated. It sounds like.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 9:24

That's correct.

Lisa Beres 9:25

Any school can adopt this and become a clean air school. Is it a certification they receive?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 9:30

It is so the threshold is that they need to have over 90% cleaner air. And so this is a certification process in which there is constant quantification of exactly how clean or sometimes how dirty the air might be. And we compare that to baseline. We compare that to the ambient air quality outdoors, and we need to constantly and consistently achieve over 90% cleaner air.

Lisa Beres 9:57

Wow, that's great. That's fantastic. I'm imagining some of these schools and really industrial areas, right? Those have to be the biggest challenges, but at least if you can get the interior clean, you're protecting that part of it.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 10:10

You're absolutely right, Lisa, we bring up the port. So within the port of Los Angeles, the port of Long Beach, there is so much transportation pollution that takes place along what they call the transportation corridor. So that is a big area for us in which we do have a lot of schools nominated to become clean air schools, as well as trekking up into the very intense transportation area within Boyle Heights where it's not only just a bunch of freeways that connect together, but there's also a major railway as well.

Lisa Beres 10:50

Yeah, right. And we've been to the Long Beach port it is wow it's a site a you've never seen anything like it if you've never driven over that big bridge and seen the containers upon containers. And it's overwhelming a little bit.

Ron Beres 11:05

A little fun fact, our producer of the show Spencer, his wife's cousin actually works, and manages one of the docks there in Long Beach. So we'll have to make him aware of this.

Lisa Beres 11:14

We need to get him a IQAir First huh?.

Ron Beres 11:17

Exactly. I think it'll be fine. I think he needs it for work. You'll and also to not just for industrial purposes. I know there was some times in California, for example, the wildfires are unfortunate natural disasters. Yeah. Wouldn't it be nice if every school system regardless of what area they're in, is prepared for a moment like that? Yeah, right.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 11:38

Definitely would be nice. And of course, we're there for schools. We want to help them to get prepared ahead of time, of course, because you can't just magically wish that the preparation was done, when you have incidents like that, but you want to really work and try to prepare ahead of time to get that technology in the right place. Yeah, for sure.

Ron Beres 12:00

Well, glory, how do you validate whether a school is that clean air school?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 12:04

We do that through our air visual sensors. So these are sensors, and they have up to four different sensors that can be placed inside each instrument. And we have 2pm 2.5 sensors, we also have co2 that we monitor indoors. And we also have the option to place in the TVOC, which stands for Total volatile organic compounds. And this will really quantify exactly how clean the air is. And we compare that literally to similar monitor outdoors. It's just a weatherize, outdoor monitors so it can sustain the rain and the sun and all of that. And we literally do a comparison between those two monitors.

Lisa Beres 12:58

Okay, is it the Air Visual PRO in the air visual outdoor that you're using in the schools? Okay, so the same unit that someone could have in their home is the same unit that's measuring the suppose you just have to have more of them? Right? per square footage, I'm guessing in a school setting?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 13:14

Yes. And also, sometimes it's required in every classroom, too. So in that case, when it's required in every classroom, then we group the monitors together, and we deliver an average among the monitors.

Lisa Beres 13:27

Okay, I can't imagine the testimonials that come back from like a school who had really poor air and like how we're I know, we're gonna get into that how people are feeling after the air has been clean, we talk about it's invisible, it's silent. It's usually odorless indoor air, so it's very easy to ignore it and think that it's unimportant, and that it's not affecting our health. until it does. I read a study from USC and UCLA that suggests that teen exposure to poor air quality could reduce IQ levels long term, by posing adverse effects on brain structure and function. Breathing polluted air can impair memory and reasoning, reduced academic performance, even lower intelligence, according to the research. Can you elaborate on the correlation between students testing higher with excellent air quality?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 14:17

Yeah, this is really quite unfortunate. But it doesn't just extend to teens, it actually extends to babies and even fetuses within the womb of pregnant women. So unfortunately, the impacts of pollution is pervasive. And it affects all areas of intelligence. It affects what's called cognitive function. It also affects what's called your executive function as well. And so there has been some studies that report the instances of ADHD also to air pollution, as well as anxiety. So we have had clean air schools. We've measured what the attendance level is before the air cleaning technology being implemented. And after the air cleaning technology being implemented, and we've seen between a 1 and sometimes a 4% increase in what's called the ADA, which is the average daily attendance. Essentially, what that means is that more kids can actually attend and be in school when their school is a clean air school. So we're actually helping kids to spend more time in the classroom, and to be able to learn more as a result of clean air.

Lisa Beres 15:36

Going back to how a school could be nominated. Because this is under a nonprofit, correct? The IQAir foundation? So do you take all the nominated schools and then have a process of which ones are going to actually get selected? And is there an X amount a year? Or how does that work?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 15:52

Sure, so twice a year, we select a clean air school. So for all the schools that are submitted, we select two times a year in, I believe it's in June, and then also in December. So it's kind of like a Christmas surprise there for the one in December. Yeah, during the year, we're consistently working with community groups to actually have what's called a supplemental environmental program. And that Supplemental Environmental Program allows other schools to become clean air schools as a result of some sort of funding that's available as a result of that particular school being what's called environmentally impacted. And there is actually a map that can show a list of schools that qualify for that. So we do, in addition to giving a school clean air, twice a year, we actually work towards getting the schools qualified, in order to receive free air cleaning technology, and air quality monitoring. That, of course, validates the improvement in the air quality that the schools are seeing.

Lisa Beres 17:01

Wow, that is really fantastic. Would you say this is your passion project? Is this one of the more important things that you work on at IQAir?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 17:10

Yeah, it's definitely up there. I love doing this. And I love to see how many kids that actually can benefit there. And we also love the environmental literacy that also comes along with being able not just to have a conversation about air quality, but have a conversation at a higher level, and talk about pm levels and exactly how many micrograms per cubic meter and where we're headed and where our goals are. So yeah, that really gets me all fired up.

Lisa Beres 17:41

I bet your kids are influencing all their friends. Now. Are your children at a school that happens to be a clean air school? Or was it not an issue where they go to school?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 17:50

Yeah, actually, it is an issue. I didn't even know about it. But we dug in deep. And we found out that the schools that my kids were going to, and this is in Hacienda Heights, actually, it's called St. Mark's Lutheran School. But actually most of Hacienda Heights are actually impacted by a pollution source that causes higher levels of PM 2.5 than other areas, and I did not know that.

Lisa Beres 18:17

Hmm, wow. Now they're off the hook for not wanting to do their homework.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 18:23

Not at all least Lisa.

Lisa Beres 18:26

They can blame it on the air. Well, it's interesting because indoor air in our homes is not regulated by a government entity. So in schools, is there no regulation either? Or how is that?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 18:39

Well there is no regulations for indoor air. But when it comes to outdoor air, there are regulations and the regulation. It's called the Clean Air Act. And everything that's done from a regulatory perspective with regard to air quality follows the exact specifications and requirements of the Clean Air Act. So yeah, there's eight pollutants that are monitored outside Yes, yes, eight pollutants, two of which are PM, particulate matter based pollutants, PM 2.5. And also PM 10. And the other pollutants are pollutants like lead, NOx, or nitrous oxide, and then also there are other pollutants like carbon monoxide, so just different pollutants, ozone as well. And when it comes to actually the Clean Air Act, and what's called AQI, AQI is essentially giving us the health impact of the air quality that we're breathing. That's what AQI is designed to give us.

Lisa Beres 19:40

The air quality index.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 19:41

Yes.

Lisa Beres 19:42

It's funny I was thinking IQAir IQI only is limited to three letters. But you can actually see the air quality index even on your iPhone, your usually your weather app, right. They'll give a little report in your zip code.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 20:00

Yeah, but believe it or not, we've got the largest air quality app, we've got over 35 million users globally of our air quality app,

Ron Beres 20:09

Only 35 million Glory. Oh my godness

Glory Dolphin Hammes 20:12

Yeah.

Ron Beres 20:13

They'll make a difference someday, right.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 20:17

But we're also partners in terms of air quality data for the United Nations. So we do share this data globally. And we're providing it to nine out of 10 of the global inhabitants for free. And it is important because people need to be able to quantify the air quality that they're breathing.

Yeah, so what makes your data different from any other air quality app, though?

It's more comprehensive. So we include data throughout the whole entire world. And we do that differently. Because sometimes when you're on the air quality apps, the index changes from one country to another, we don't actually change our air quality index, because what we want to do is we want to give people the ability to compare apples to apples. So we use the same air quality index globally. And that's the US EPA air quality index. So when you're looking at our map, and you see these different colors on the map, you're seeing essentially the same colors as you move from country to country, the same scale.

Ron Beres 21:23

Okay. More of an apples to apples comparison. I'm curious, I know our listeners, and I'm gonna go back to the nominating the school. What's the process? Like? Is it pretty straightforward for someone to nominate a school in their community?

Lisa Beres 21:35

Do they go to IQAir.com? Is the information on your website?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 21:39

Well, it's actually not on our IQAircom. But it's on IQairfoundation.org. So the nonprofit, it's definitely on that website. And it's pretty easy. You could just look up clean air schools. And there you see Apply to apply

Lisa Beres 21:57

nine plein air school.

Ron Beres 21:57

Now I know some of our listeners are thinking like, I just don't want to apply, I want my school to win. So previous winners that have won this award. Was there anything that set them apart? Do they have a particular maybe, incident or something? No.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 22:10

Okay, we actually do what's called a random selection. And we're required to do this. So it's not like you're gonna get more points for this or more points for that. You either qualify to be a clean air school. And the qualification is that it's in what's called an EJ zone, EJ standing for environmental justice. So it's according to the EPA map, it's designated an environmental justice area, that's going to be an elementary school, or even a what's called early education school, or I guess it's called early education facility or elementary school. And that's really essentially what..

Lisa Beres 22:48

Not a high school?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 22:49

No, not not high school. Okay, because actually, the children, the more of an impact we're actually able to make in their health. And it's not that we don't like teenagers.

But we've actually been able to show or not us in particular, but researchers were able to show that when you get kids early, even as early as preschool, that you're able to make such a difference on the impact of their health on this has to do specifically with lung development. And that's a little bit of the sad story involved in environmental justice is that the lung development is impaired so much through air pollution, that you want to really be able to have an immediate impact with the youngest kids possible in order to be able to protect their health.

Lisa Beres 23:48

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I know Philip Landrigan of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, was very outspoken about the toxins, and how this affects children and I believe did a big study on how children were losing IQ points from pesticide exposures actually. And they go in and you think like, that's such a detriment to society, if children are losing IQ points, the cost to society, the future society and all of that. So this topic really spans into so many different areas, right? The learning, I think New York Times did an article the cost of toxicity, like what is Texas City costing us as a society, when we've got so many people with respiratory issues? And like you said, the learning behavioral disorders and all of that, too, and a lot of people aren't connecting the dots to their environment? Because I think a lot of people too, when they think of pollution, Glory, they think of a smokestack, right? I mean, that's just our vision in our head. Oh, you know, it's got to be a smokestack. That's what pollution looks like. We don't think of like pollution that in your ambient air that you can't see. And so guys, if you're listening, pay attention to that and your home. Then if you don't have an Air Purifier, and we didn't get through to you on the last episode, please get one for your app and nominate your school too and nominate yourself. So glory, what is the public monitoring station? And how can people contribute and participate in clean air awareness? What can people do?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 25:15

Wow. Okay, a public monitoring station is a station that is publicly available. So we make our stations publicly available through our website and also through our free air quality app. So that means that anybody who is on the website or is on the app can actually see the hyperlocal air quality that's provided by a public station. And that's pretty cool.

Lisa Beres 25:41

Oh, yeah. Really nice. Yeah, seeing is believing.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 25:45

I know, actually have individuals that are just regular people that volunteer to be a public station. So it's really cool. Yeah, there is a verification process. So just because you want to be a public station doesn't mean that you always will be you have to go through the verification process. And then there is what's called a validation and sort of a calibration of data, data cleaning, essentially that we do.

Lisa Beres 26:12

Oh, okay. Yeah, this would be like a business se that wanted to do it, or?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 26:17

We have a lot of community groups that do it. But we actually have just individuals and nonprofits. Yeah, so about half of our data that's on our platform, are actually it's not government data, but it's just through private data. And these are the groups and individuals that just are filling in the gap. There may be another regulatory or government station way far away. And so they just take it upon themselves to put a monitor in their backyard and start publicizing their data.

Lisa Beres 26:53

Wow, that's fantastic. Wow, talk about like, you guys really been cutting edge and gathering that data through this process. That's really incredible.

Ron Beres 27:02

Glory I'm just gonna ask if there's any regions in particular that need more coverage that you might want to give a shout out to someone listening, and maybe Idaho might go, okay, maybe I should step up and put one of these in my backyard.

Glory Dolphin Hammes 27:11

There's actually quite a few areas. And if you go to our map, you can see in particular where those areas are. And if there's not another monitor, within five miles, please raise your hand.

Lisa Beres 27:26

Really. They can go on IQair and look that up and find out anyone who's interested in doing that doing your part for community service. Yeah. And to help improve the area across the world. Wow. Well, this was really interesting. I think this topic of schools doesn't get covered enough school indoor air quality. Is there anything else you want to leave our listeners before we wrap?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 27:49

Oh, we've got our air quality app. And you can download it on the app store or on Google Play. It's the IQAir air quality app. So go ahead and download it.

Lisa Beres 27:58

Absolutely. And that's a free app, right?

Glory Dolphin Hammes 28:00

Yes, it's free. And no advertising on it too.

Lisa Beres 28:05

No advertising nice.. That's rare these days. Oh, my gosh, glory. This was great. Thank you so much for being with us. And friends. I teased at the top to stay tuned for the goodies and I'm going to tell you about them now. So how would you like to save money on your own IQAir air visual monitors for your home and outdoors. IQAir is offering $25 off the indoor outdoor monitor air visual bundle. So head right now to IQAir.com. And enter this discount code. RONANDLISA25. That's all caps RONANDLISA25 at checkout, this discount will be applied to each eligible item per order. There's no minimum purchase that applies to all customers. There are no usage limits. And the coupon code is active from now until May 31 of 2023.

Ron Beres 28:56

And you have a chance to win your very own Air Visual PRO and outdoor sensor bundle valued at $569. There is no purchase necessary to win. Just head to ronandlisa.com/blog to get all the details. And we'll have the direct link in the show notes at Ronandlisa.com/podcast.

Lisa Beres 29:19

Stay tuned for the next episode and get ready friends to uplevel your health. We'll see you then. Bye bye.

Narrator 29:29

This episode of the Healthy Home Hacks podcast has ended. But be sure to subscribe for more healthy living strategies and tactics to help you create the healthy home you always dreamed up. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best content. See you on the next episode.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai