Last call for air purifiers!
Multiple news outlets covered UPHE and the Utah Department of Health and Human Services program this week in a final effort to distribute clean air to classrooms before the federal grant expires.
UPHE Board Member Dr. E. Tom Nelson was quoted in an ABC4 piece on the program, citing that even low air pollution levels make it more difficult for students to learn, do well on tests, and perform well in general. Additionally, reducing air pollution levels helps students and teachers require out-of-patient care and hospitalization less frequently, reducing illness-related absences.
St. George News also covered the program after talking to the program’s K-12 Coordinator, Jake Jensen, who described the goal of the program, where schools should place the purifiers, and that the program includes funding for replacement filters to ensure they’re used long into the future.
The Daily Herald quoted Dr. Brian Moench in their article on the program, “We’re making a last vigorous push to try and get all the schools that have not yet signed up for the program enrolled in it because it would be a real shame if hundreds of thousands of Utah children were left without the benefits of this program when it’s for free. “Four or five years ago, we started publicly calling for the legislature to start putting air purifiers in school classrooms, not only because of the research that showed that air pollution had a toxic effect on brain function and brain development, but there is even more specific research showing that air pollution affects a person’s ability to think.”