An investigation of indoor air quality in school classrooms in Victoria, Australia

Poor thermal conditions and indoor environmental quality are known to decrease productivity and cause dissatisfaction for building occupants. Acceptable indoor air quality (IAQ), for example, is defined as air with no known contaminants at harmful concentration levels, and yet prescription of ventilation rates in standards and guidelines in educational facilities are deemed sufficient for acceptable IAQ. However, studies have shown these requirements are often not met. While the impact of indoor environmental quality on health and educational outcomes in schools have been extensively investigated, scientific studies on measurements of indoor environmental conditions in P-12 schools in Australia are limited. This paper presents the initial results of the year-long study investigating the IAQ performance before (for two school terms) and after (last two school terms) the installation of fresh filtered air ventilation systems in the selected school classrooms in Victoria, Australia. Specifically, this paper is the evaluation of the Term 1 indoor air quality conditions of ten (10) classrooms in four (4) primary schools and a secondary school prior to the intervention in the ventilation system.