PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Parents and elected officials are calling on the School District of Philadelphia to install HEPA air filters in classrooms.
The Safe Air for Philly Schools campaign sent a letter on Wednesday to the Board of Education, asking that ionizing air purifiers installed in response to COVID-19 be replaced with HEPA filters. Campaign organizer and former teacher Katy Egan says those filters can improve the air quality in classrooms that lack adequate ventilation.
“We are asking them to switch from a technology that is fairly ineffective and could potentially be harmful to one that we know is effective,” Egan said.
HEPA filters, she says, meet CDC air delivery standards at a fraction of the cost of purifiers. Some teachers and activists, like Lincoln High School math teacher Charlie Hudgins, have taken matters into their own hands, building more than 130 filter devices made from fans and filters, called Corsi-Rosenthal boxes, to put in classrooms.
“This for me is a profession. It's a career and I plan to be in Philadelphia,” Hudgins said. “And I don't want, down the line, one of the concerns I have when I'm applying for a job say, at a different school or something to be, ‘Well, it's a good fit and everything but what's the air quality going to be like?’”
The letter to the board was co-signed by City Councilmembers Kendra Brooks, Nicolas O’Rourke, Jamie Gauthier, Mark Squilla, Nina Ahmad and Rue Landau.
Six members of Philadelphia's state legislative delegation also signed the letter — state Sen. Nikil Saval and Reps. Elizabeth Fiedler, Rick Krajewski, Chris Rabb, Tarik Khan and Ben Waxman. The board had no comment on the letter.