4 Ways Spring Pollen Can Affect Your School’s Facilities

April 10, 2019

Spring pollen can cause significant issues for many people, including students. If students are battling allergies while trying to study, they can lose out on significant amounts of productivity. Classrooms and school buildings in general tend to house more allergy and asthma triggers than the average home, so your kids may be experiencing more pollen-related respiratory issues at school than at home.

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How Can Pollen Affect Learning?

Imagine trying to keep up with your workday while battling the symptoms of an allergy attack.

Sneezing, itchy eyes, and a runny nose can make it difficult for anyone to focus on a task at hand, especially a child more prone to distraction than adults. Children struggling with allergy symptoms in the classroom simply cannot focus on their work.
These episodes may also lead to more visits to the nurse’s office, further decreasing productivity.
Some children with asthma or severe allergies may experience acute medical episodes due to consistent pollen exposure.
Kids may start dreading going to school because of their allergies or asthma.

Children deserve healthy learning environments, so schools should do everything they can to preserve the air quality in their classrooms.

Keeping Pollen Out of the Classroom

Pollen can enter a school building in numerous ways. Most commonly, kids attending school track it into the school on their shoes and clothes where it makes its way into the ventilation system. While most modern schools have air circulation systems with air filtration, the pollen may linger on floors and walls and other surfaces for quite some time before a filter catches it.

Custodians should use vacuum cleaners with HEPA filter bags on carpeted surfaces and clean hard finished surfaces on a regular basis. Check the ventilation system and ensure all the vent covers are clean and free from accumulated dust, dirt, and other particles. The furnace and air circulation system likely use heavy-duty air filters, so check the manufacturer’s instructions to find out when and how to replace them on a regular basis.

Asthma and allergy symptoms can make anyone miserable, especially kids in school. Taking the time to thoroughly clean a school and enforcing stringent cleaning routines can help alleviate these problems.