The ÎSÉE (Île-de-France SantÉ Environnement) network, in partnership with the CSTB (Centre scientifique et technique du bâtiment) and Medieco, is offering a webinar as part of the National Air Quality Day 2021 to be held on October 14. The two members have chosen to focus on indoor air quality in schools.

School is the second most frequented place for children, after their home. Because of their susceptibility to environmental pollution, due to the growth and maturation of their organs and their hands-on-mouth activity, children are highly exposed and particularly sensitive to environmental pollution.

Over the past ten years, a growing number of international studies have shown that a degraded school environment, in terms of both pollution and comfort (thermal, acoustic, visual), can have harmful effects on children's short- and long-term health (infections, asthma), as well as on their ability to learn and perform at school.

In classrooms, indoor air quality depends on a number of factors: high occupancy rates, furniture density, cleaning of the premises and use of products for activities (glues, inks, paints, etc.). What's more, most of these buildings are old and have no ventilation system, and ventilation is only provided by opening windows.

Against this backdrop, what is currently known about the quality of indoor school environments in France, and what solutions exist to improve it?

This webconference will present :

• The results of the Ecole campaign (2013-2017) on air quality in schools by its coordinator, Claire Dassonville (CSTB), project manager for indoor environment quality.
• Feedback from the town of Aix-les-Bains following its study on the effectiveness of ventilation strategies in schools, with a testimonial from Guillaume Rey, technician for major and environmental risks at the town of Aix-les-Bains.
• Feedback from the city of Grenoble as part of the TRouss'air study on emissions from school supplies, according to Soline Martin, Project Manager at Medieco, and Xavier Morelli, Health Engineer, in charge of risk assessment at the city of Grenoble.

The aim is not only to report on the current state of knowledge, but also to outline the effective levers of action available to local authorities to clean up the air in classrooms.