LYNN — As Lynn Public School administrators continue to aim for a return to in-person learning this year, the city has purchased portable air purifiers for the district’s 10 oldest school buildings.
The function of the purifiers would be to create low levels of ozone that render inactive virus pathogens in the air and on surfaces.
The purchase of the GreenTech Environmental technology was made on the heels of a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) report that showed air ventilation systems were blocked off in those buildings.
The air purifiers, which were purchased with Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding, have been placed in every classroom, cafeteria and gymnasium within the 10 schools targeted in the report: Aborn, Brickett, Cobbet, Drewicz, Fecteau-Leary, Fallon, Lincoln-Thomson, Tracy, Pickering, and Washington S.T.E.M.
The product, pureAir, uses different types of technology, including producing low levels of ozone that naturally exist outdoors, to create active, rather than the passive purification seen with air filters, to take on virus pathogens immediately, according to GreenTech founder and CEO Allen Johnston.
“We have different technologies that have come into play to help keep the students and people in the school safe through actively purifying the air,” said Johnston. “There’s a lot of things out there that are available to you today. Most of them are passive in nature, things like filters, that serve a definite purpose, but the problem is the virus is far too fast to be able to be trapped by a filter.
“By the time it traverses the room and makes it to a filter, chances are the students, or the teachers, or administrators (could be) infected. We’re able to actually inactivate the virus right where it’s at immediately when it gets into the air or on a surface and that’s the reason our technology is being deployed in hospitals right now.”
In the past four months, Johnston said there have been multiple scientific journal reports that have indicated the power of ozone levels, when produced at natural levels considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to help reduce microbes.
He said the new data shows that low levels of ozone, such as what is seen in clean, pristine outdoor areas, is effective in being able to inactivate COVID-19. For example, in those areas, ozone levels are typically between .01 to .05 parts per million, Johnston said.
“A particular journal article in the Journal of Infection has shown that low-level ozone — we’re talking about at levels lower than .05 parts per million — is able to create a natural immunity within people who are breathing that on a regular basis,” said Johnston, who was actually citing a letter to the editor that appeared in the publication.
Johnston said his company’s product does not generate ozone on its own during the day, which can be harmful at levels that are either too high or too low. There’s a button on the device that teachers or administrators would be able to press at the end of the school day, which would allow the school district to create a higher level of ozone, which would sanitize the buildings after everyone is gone, he said.
“It’s on a timer so a teacher or administrator can hit that button and it will run for two hours and within two hours, the ozone that is generated is totally gone,” said Johnston.
Although the device won’t be generating ozone during the school day, Johnston said it will still be actively purifying the air through the use of photocatalytic technology, which was developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The method works by producing advanced oxidation products, such as Hydrogen Peroxide, and other hydrogen- and oxygen-based compounds that would be found in an outdoor environment, to purify the air, according to Johnston.
When the city sealed up the mechanical ventilation systems in those 10 school buildings in the 1970s (which was done to save money during an oil crisis), ozone and other natural elements created by the sun were blocked off, Johnston said.
Johnston said the device will seek to remedy that, noting that Lynn is one of at least seven Massachusetts school districts using the product.
“It actually helps to create a level of immunity that your body creates because you’re breathing these low levels of ozone that you would be if you were outside all day,” said Johnston.
School Committee member Lorraine Gately said she was horrified by the HVAC report, which showed not only that the ventilation systems were blocked off in those schools, but that the buildings were unsafe and not up to code.
She wondered whether the district’s purchase of the pureAir 1500, which covers 1,500 square feet, was adequate for some of the larger classrooms, or if the larger 3000 size should be placed in those rooms.
Superintendent Dr. Patrick Tutwiler said the city’s Inspectional Services Department (ISD) ordered four different purifiers based on separate spaces, which included some 3,000-square feet devices.
“What I did recall was that the 1500 was sufficient for a regular classroom,” said Tutwiler, explaining that the typical classroom size in those 10 buildings is about 900 square feet.
School Committee member Michael Satterwhite requested that Tutwiler obtain classroom dimensions from ISD to ensure that the proper devices were being placed in each space.
“I would love for us to have these in all the rooms throughout the district, because if we’re not testing other buildings other than the 10 then we’re taking a risk by not having these awesome machines in them,” said Satterwhite.
