3th February 2023
Since September we have been conducting air quality research around our school in order to compare last year’s results to this year’s results. We wanted to investigate whether the air quality had changed and find out what the variables influencing air quality around our school were. We conducted student and staff surveys, we completed traffic observations, and we monitored air quality in three separate locations using No2 diffusion test tubes, to see what factors influence the air we breathe in RCC. Overall, we were happy to discover that the air quality, whilst varied slightly between this year and last year, remains in the ‘Good’ category, according to the Air Quality index (AQI). Based on the findings of our research on how car idling around schools affects respiratory health we would encourage parents driving in on school grounds to turn off car engines and to be cognisant of switching engines off outside the school grounds during school pick up to continuously improve our results and by implication respiratory health of staff, students and visitors to the school. We enjoyed working as a team and promoting air quality, sustainable travel and SDG 3 Good Health and Wellbeing.
Article Credit: Vicki Swendroska, Joey Cormican, Aaron Dimambro and Maria Viana
