As the guidelines for the start of the school year on September 2 are taking shape, the question of installing air purifiers or CO2 sensors is back on the table.
In an interview with the Journal du Dimanche on August 22, Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer outlined the details of the start of the school year, for which the COVID-19 protocol had been announced in July.
Since the start of the school year, two devices have been recommended to help ensure greater vigilance in classrooms: air purifiers and CO2 sensors. The latter measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. According to the High Council for Public Health, ventilation is necessary when levels reach 800 ppm (parts per million). Thus, even though the Level 2 health protocol that will be in place for this school year already recommends regular ventilation of rooms, these sensors would provide a means to respond quickly when transmission risks increase.
Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Sunday that he wanted to “roll them out across the board,” as he had already stated in the spring. “There is a scientific consensus that classrooms should be equipped with them because they help measure ventilation needs,” he added.
There is indeed a consensus. But in an op-ed published in *Le Monde* (paywall) on August 19, a group of doctors, including epidemiologists Dominique Costagliola and William Dab, argue that “the recommendation to equip schools with CO₂ detectors is not enough: it must become the standard.” They point out that as early as this summer, several countries, such as Ireland and Quebec, have “equipped all classrooms with detectors.”
Ability to finance
The question remains as to who is responsible for this installation. The Minister of Education has stated that this falls under the “jurisdiction of local authorities,” with whom he wishes to work “in partnership (…) rather than through coercion.”
In an interview with Le Monde, Delphine Labails, the Socialist mayor of Périgueux and the official in charge of education issues at the Association of French Mayors, stated that “local governments are unable to fund this equipment for all their classrooms.” “The government must support us. We already made this request in March, but to no avail,” she said.
When it comes to air purifiers, the minister has a clearer stance on the issue. In an article in the JDD on Sunday, he stated that “health authorities have always asked us to use our best judgment”: “These air purifiers can be useful, especially in certain rooms that cannot be adequately ventilated through windows.”
"Increase in demand"
France Inter reports that NatéoSanté , a company NatéoSanté manufactures air purifiers, has equipped “nearly 500 schools since last year.” “Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen an increase in requests to equip certain high schools,” notes the company’s president, Thierry Ricci.
Once again, this installation comes at a cost. On August 20, Matthieu Orphelin, the EELV representative for Maine-et-Loire, issued a statement condemning “the Minister of National Education’s refusal to roll out air sensors and air purifiers in classrooms,” calling the decision “incomprehensible.”
The representative thus called for “the creation of a purchase assistance fund to support municipalities at a rate of 1,000 euros per classroom, amounting to 250 million euros to equip classrooms in all public schools.”