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United Nations, New York, September 2025. Attending the historic event, "Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call To Action". Safe Air Schools are proud partners and founding signatories of the first global pledge explicitly recognising indoor air as a human right. Our Air Quality Expert, Sotirios Papathanasiou, was a distinguished speaker alongside leaders, scientists and health experts
Improving air quality inside schools
for inclusive, sustainable, equitable education
Safe Air Schools is a parent-led organisation, supported by experts, working to improve air quality in classrooms. Founded in Hampshire, Safe Air Schools responds to challenges faced by schools nationwide, and brings together a coalition of independent organisations united in the same goal. Our approach centres on inclusion, equity, sustainability and action rooted in evidence.
A Hidden Harm
Indoor air can be 2-5 times, even 100 times more polluted than outdoor air
UK classrooms, particularly in primary schools, are among the most densely populated learning environments in the developed world, with a typical classroom accommodating around four times as many occupants as a standard adult office.
Until recently, scientific research has focused on the risk of outdoor pollutants on children, from sources such as road traffic and wood burning. But indoor air is as important, if not more so, than outdoor air. That's because children, outside of the home, spend most of their time inside classrooms.
Up to 80% of classroom air pollution comes from outside, but shutting windows doesn’t solve the problem. That traps CO₂, increases the risk of infection, and allows indoor pollutants to accumulate. So inside our classrooms, pupils and teachers are regularly exposed to:
- Particulate matter
- Mould and fungal spores
- Pollen and other airborne allergens
- High CO₂ levels from poor ventilation
- Airborne viruses that cause flu, measles, and COVID-19
- Even microscopic plastic particles
Breathing poor-quality air is a well-documented risk to children's immediate and long-term health and cognition. Improving air quality in schools not only reduces absence rates and safeguards children’s health and well-being, but it also sharpens concentration and enhances educational performance.
Whilst the UK has outdoor air quality guidelines, unlike the food we eat and the water we drink, indoor air pollution has no specific legislation.
Explore challenges through data
Every piece of data we provide is evidenced and independently verifiable
Immediately Available, Affordable Solutions
To improve indoor air quality, we can take immediate actions, implement measures over the short and medium-term, and continue striving toward longer-term goals
The government advises schools to use the CO₂ monitors they provided routinely. Monitoring indoor air pollution is recognised as essential to protecting children’s health, and this is a step recommended by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) in their latest report. Quick maintenance fixes, such as unblocking vents, fixing leaks, and cleaning filters, can help. Schools must also open windows where safe. However, in densely packed classrooms, these strategies alone may not reliably improve indoor air quality.
Longer-term solutions include school street schemes, urban greening, retrofitting and upgrading mechanical ventilation systems, ideally with heat recovery.
In the meantime, schools can ensure a safer learning environment for students and staff by deploying portable air filters.
Safe Air Schools have demonstrated that for the price of a pizza, a child can breathe safely in class all year
Safe Air Schools UK have demonstrated that this is affordable, and that clean air can be delivered with commercial air filters per pupil, per year, for the price of a pizza. Calculations assume 30 pupils per class, 8 hours per day, and 190 working school days per year. It also includes an annual filter change per unit, with multiple units per class as needed to achieve the recommended six air changes per hour.
Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call To Action
A historic United Nations event held in September 2025.
Safe Air Schools are proud partners and a founding signatory of The Global Pledge
Healthy Air Benefits
- Improved test scores in math, reading & science
- Reduced absenteeism
- Improved focus and concentration
- Reduced frequency of respiratory illness
- Reduced frequency of allergies
- Reduced asthma symptoms
- Higher scores on cognitive function tests
- Improved comfort, reduced stress and enhanced well-being
- Increased energy and alertness
- Positive impact on mental health
- Reduced risk of chronic disease
- Reduced teacher illness absence, respiratory symptoms and improved morale
87%
of Britain's schools are in toxic neighbourhoods, with 12 million children at risk
86%
of new school sites are planned in areas in breach of all three World Health Organisation air pollution targets
In 2023 -24
The majority of pupil absence in schools in England is due to illness
