More than 40% of the classes with the worst air quality last fall were in the town of Laval, whose school buildings are in a state of disrepair. The newspaper reveals the list of problematic establishments.
Thanks to the Access to Information Act, our Parliament Office has received the list of buildings that had the highest concentration of CO2 at the beginning of the school year, i.e. from September 5 to October 28, 2022.
Minister Bernard Drainville unveiled a summary of this data last December without naming the schools.
While the Department of Education considers 1000 parts per million (ppm) to be ideal, the Legault government sets the bar at 1500 ppm.
The data sent in response to our request for information concerns the 72 classes in which the air quality is the worst, ie those which have exceeded a CO2 concentration of 2000 ppm at least three times in the period concerned.
Laval at the bottom of the rankings
In this unfortunate list, the Laval region was represented 31 times.
The Saint-Maxime high school alone had six classes in the top 10. One of the buildings even recorded an average concentration of 3977 ppm over the eight week period (see below).
This situation does not surprise the President of the Syndicat de l’enseignement in the Laval region, André Arsenault. He points out that several schools in the region are in disrepair. “The Center de services scolaire de Laval does not maintain its buildings very well and the Quebec government is building new schools without considering the renovation and maintenance of old buildings,” laments Mr. Arsenault.
In fact, the oldest annex of the Saint-Maxime school was built in 1958, while the main building dates back to 1963. Also note that the facility is 250 meters from Boulevard Curé-Labelle.
For its part, the Center de services scolaire de Laval explains that “most of our facilities are ventilated manually”, which means that teachers have to open the windows to ventilate the room.
open a window
This is also true for more than half of Quebec’s schools that do not have mechanical ventilation. Following the release of the data by Minister Drainville last December, the service center took several actions to rectify the situation. In particular, posters were put up to remind teachers to open the windows in mild weather or to use breaks to air the room in cold weather.
“It is clear that the measures initiated since last fall are bearing fruit, as for the period from January 9 to March 3, 2023, only two classes had an average weekly CO2 concentration that exceeded 2000 ppm at least three times during the target period. ‘ said a spokeswoman.
PROBLEM CLASSES
Worse in winter
File photo, Fotolia
The MEQ states on its website that an average weekly CO2 concentration of less than 1500 ppm “ensures a good level of comfort for residents (and thus avoids drowsiness and concentration difficulties in students, for example)”.
An associate professor specializing in ventilation says the data obtained from Le Journal is “worrying”, especially since the measurement was taken at the beginning of the school year.
“It’s the beginning of the year, at a time when the outside temperatures are more moderate, when you could still open the windows. So those weren’t the worst of conditions,” says Stéphane Bilodeau, associate professor in McGill University’s Department of Bioengineering.
Education Minister Bernard Drainville recognized this when announcing his results. “If the cold weather comes, those numbers will probably be less good, let’s be honest,” he admitted.
In fact, the number of premises exceeding 2000 ppm increased from 250 in the week of October 3, 2022 to 3892 in the week of December 19 of the same year (see below).
averages and peaks
Mr Drainville assured last December that work is already underway to improve the situation in the identified premises, whether it be by installing air exchangers or new windows.
We’ve talked a lot about air quality in connection with COVID-19, but high levels of CO2 are also bad for health by facilitating the spread of pollutants and affecting students’ concentration, recalls Mr Bilodeau.
The specialist also notes that the data presented by Quebec are averages, meaning CO2 readers saw higher peaks.
“In the average that we make, we also include times when the class is not busy; B. Breaks, lunch breaks, and periods at the beginning and end of the day when there are not many people in the class,” explains Mr. Bilodeau.
“It would have made a lot more sense to have the spikes. […] These average values are below reality,” he judges.
Number of classes with an average CO2 concentration above 2000 ppm
Fall 2022
- Week of October 3rd: 250
- Week of October 10: 488
- Week of October 17: 470
- Week of October 24th: 254
Winter 2022
- Week of November 28: 3378
- Week of December 5th: 3385
- Week of December 12: 4000
- Week of December 19: 3892
Source: Ministry of Education
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