Mark Hernandez News

Mark Hernandez: Indoor air monitoring goes to school

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 17:59:36 +0000

Mark Hernandez: Indoor air monitoring goes to school Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/11/2024 - 11:59

Across the US, schools have begun measuring air quality en masse. Professor Mark Hernandez is helping to interpret the data

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9News: Researchers at CU Boulder test classroom air purification devices

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 17:42:56 +0000

9News: Researchers at CU Boulder test classroom air purification devices Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/23/2024 - 11:42

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Why Good Indoor Air Quality Matters — American Lung Association Podcast

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 21:13:30 +0000

Why Good Indoor Air Quality Matters — American Lung Association Podcast Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/05/2023 - 14:13

In this episode of the American Lung Association Podcast, Professor Mark Hernandez speaks about the harmful impact of pollutants such as mold, toxic chemicals and asbestos on respiratory health, particularly in a school setting.

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Can air purifiers help keep kids in school? New study seeks to find out.

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 21:57:57 +0000

Can air purifiers help keep kids in school? New study seeks to find out. Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/27/2023 - 15:57

Mark Hernandez, SJ Archuleta Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, is co-leading a $2.2 million CDC-funded project with researchers at CU Anschutz to investigate the impact of classroom air purifiers on reducing student absenteeism.

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Mark Hernandez secures $1.5M in new awards from DEVCOM and CDC

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 15:57:32 +0000

Mark Hernandez secures $1.5M in new awards from DEVCOM and CDC Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/21/2023 - 09:57

Professor Mark Hernandez received $1.5 million in new awards from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study electromagnetic field impacts on bacteria and air quality-related respiratory disease outcomes in K-12 classrooms.

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Tend to get sick when the air is dry? New research helps explain why

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 00:02:41 +0000

Tend to get sick when the air is dry? New research helps explain why Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/23/2023 - 17:02

Mark Hernandez, S. J. Archuleta Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and senior author of recent research published in PNAS-Nexus, found that airborne particles carrying a mammalian coronavirus closely related to the virus which causes COVID-19 remain infectious for twice as long in drier air.

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Unique bioaerosol lab, dedicated students, made COVID research possible

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 23:36:27 +0000

Unique bioaerosol lab, dedicated students, made COVID research possible Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/23/2023 - 16:36

Professor Mark Hernandez, S. J. Archuleta Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, also directs CU Boulder's Environmental Engineering Microbiology and Disinfection Lab, an experimental space used to study infectious airborne particles and realistically mimics indoor environments. In a recent study published in PNAS-Nexus, the team studied murine hepatitis virus (MHV), a coronavirus that cannot infect humans but is closely related to SARS-CoV-2.

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Air quality research in Denver schools highlighted by multiple media outlets

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 20:53:25 +0000

Air quality research in Denver schools highlighted by multiple media outlets Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/22/2022 - 14:53

Mark Hernandez's research to study air quality and COVID-19 in Denver Public Schools is being covered by numerous Front Range journalists.

Denver Public Schools is spending $1.5 million to track air quality in classrooms with new monitors installed by Hernandez and his students.

Hernandez, a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, is an expert in genetic, biochemical and toxicological techniques to assess the efficacy of engineering interventions in sanitary and hygiene concerns.

His laboratory has a particular focus on aerobiology science for wide-area surveillance, indoor cleaning technology and the design of aerosol disinfection systems in the built environment.

The project is receiving coverage in the Denver Post, Denverite, 9News, and Chalkbeat Colorado

Denver Post: Denver Public Schools spending $1.5 million to track air quality in classrooms with new monitors

Denverite: DPS is adding air monitors in all of its schools

9News: DPS installs air quality sensors in schools

Chalkbeat Colorado: Denver schools to monitor indoor air quality using federal COVID money

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Clearing the Air on COVID-19: Duo Campus Project Aimed at Keeping Schools Open

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 18:33:32 +0000

Clearing the Air on COVID-19: Duo Campus Project Aimed at Keeping Schools Open Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/20/2022 - 12:33

ColoradoSPH, CU Boulder combine NASA-inspired technology and innovative masks to monitor viruses in classroom

The classrooms of Barnum Elementary School in Denver echo with the chatter of students and the instruction of teachers. The white, waist-high, curved machine in the corner is quiet as can be.

The machine, which looks like a less-complicated R2D2, contains a NASA-designed HEPA filter and is part of a cross-campus initiative between the 91��Ƭ��AV and the Colorado School of Public Health (ColoradoSPH) at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. The project’s goal is to test and clean the air in classrooms across the state, preventing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and keeping the state’s schools open.

Reading the air

Mark Hernandez, PE, PhD, S. J. Archuleta professor of environmental engineering at CU Boulder, is leading the air-filtration part of the initiative that monitors the biomatter in classroom air. The system, designed at CU Boulder, is borrowed from a military technology that was used for bioterrorism or biological warfare assessment.

“This crossed over in the civilian sector for indoor assessment,” Hernandez said. “And prior to COVID-19, it was used for flood-damaged buildings. So we go into the public schools, characterize the ventilation performance and look at that biological quality of what the kids are breathing in school.”

The monitoring system can separate inorganic matter from biological matter in the air, helping assess the levels of viruses, such as RSV, influenza, COVID-19, tuberculosis, whooping cough and COVID-19. Hernandez’s lab has been researching the characterization and control of airborne microorganisms for almost 25 years. The study uses the large bioaerosol chamber in Hernandez's lab.

“We are using classic methods for culturing mammalian viruses as well as emerging instrumentation from the Colorado tech sector that helps them characterize the identity, distribution and infectious potential of indoor airborne microorganisms — notably including coronavirus,” Hernandez said.

Testing student masks

After seeing Hernandez’s project featured on 9News, May Chu, PhD, a clinical professor in epidemiology at the ColoradoSPH, reached out. Chu and her team have spent the last year successfully implementing a COVID-19 testing program in Denver Public Schools and local universities. The project uses disposable face coverings (masks) with a polyvinyl alcohol strip inside, right under the wearer’s nose, used to detect SARS-CoV-2.

Students who opt to participate in the study – which is currently testing at seven college campuses representing 73% of all the registered college students in the state and at four K-12 schools – pick up masks in the morning and return them three to four hours later. Once the student hands in their mask, the ColoradoSPH team works with COVID Check Colorado to administer a nasal swab PCR test to detect SARS-CoV-2. The school gets the results of the nasal swab testing in the evening each day.

The study, funded by the World Health Organization, also includes the University of Leicester in England. Using the strip, researchers can determine whether participants are COVID-19-positive, even those who are asymptomatic or test negative through a nasal swab PCR test.

While the ColoradoSPH team has received overwhelming support from schools that welcomed the help to test students, they have been slow to find new participants, as many are experiencing burnout with all COVID-related activities and discussions.

“Our theory is that someone could be infected with SARS-CoV-2 in their nose, but we want to understand how much they’re actually exhaling the virus, because it's the exhalation that makes the person infectious,” Chu said. “If it stays in your nasal cavity and is not detected by the strips in a mask, then there's a good chance you're really not at high risk of infecting other people. We believe there is a difference in being PCR-positive and being actually of some risk.”

Keeping levels at bay

While the machines testing and filtering the air from Hernandez’s project give easy-to-read levels that schools can monitor independently, the ColoradoSPH team is working to compare the levels of SARS-CoV-2 in the air with the mask and positivity rates from her study. The ColoradoSPH study is seeking evidence that may lead to delineating when people should or should not wear a mask.

“If it stays in your nasal cavity and is not detected by the strips in a mask, then there's a good chance you're really not at high risk of infecting other people. We believe there is a difference in being PCR-positive and being actually of some risk.” – May Chu, PhD

“These students are in congregate situations all day, in dorms, at parties, shouting at sporting events, etcetera. So we hope to determine the ways in which they’re transmitting the virus or not,” Chu said.

“We want to find out the metrics that we can use to measure a classroom by the level of infectivity in the students and teachers,” Chu said. “This will allow schools to stay open because they’ll be able to measure and test the viral content in the air, and hopefully meet the metrics of low transmission, low particles or have high particles with fast removal.”

“This partnership between the ColoradoSPH and CU Boulder is so important,” Hernandez said. “We are interfacing building science and engineering with epidemiology, which we have never done before.”

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COVID-19 has spurred investments in air filtration for K-12 schools – but these technologies aren’t an instant fix

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 22:02:32 +0000

COVID-19 has spurred investments in air filtration for K-12 schools – but these technologies aren’t an instant fix Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/24/2021 - 16:02

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought increased attention to indoor air quality and the effect that ventilation has on reducing disease transmission in indoor spaces. A recent infrastructure survey reported that of the nearly 100,000 operating public school buildings across the U.S., more than a third have an immediate need for upgrades to the ventilation systems that help control indoor air quality and the spread of “aerosols.”

Aerosol is the term used to describe the millions of microscopic particles that float in air – both indoors and out. People constantly inhale and exhale aerosols, some of which include allergens, particles from automobile exhaust, wildfire ash and microbes.

Our University of Colorado environmental engineering team has been studying the microbiological components of indoor air, called “bioaerosols”, for more than 25 years. We have surveyed the ventilation systems of hundreds of K-12 classrooms, health care facilities and restaurants. And we have provided facilities managers with affordable plans to improve indoor air quality.

Our own work as well as others’ has found that many classrooms are unfortunately poorly ventilated, and that better ventilation can reduce student absences due to illness – both during a pandemic and more normal times.

After surveying the installation of air filtration systems over the past year, we found that they can significantly improve air quality in classrooms by lowering aerosol levels, which in turn lowers COVID-19 transmission risk. But effective installation is key.

A new age of filtration

As the pandemic continues to highlight the need for better ventilation and indoor air quality, many academic institutions, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and professional building science societies have been promoting better building-management practices to improve school ventilation.

Some building scientists have called for bringing the ventilation conditions in schools up to the levels prescribed for medical clinics. Unfortunately, the infrastructure investments required for that level of upgrade are well out of practical reach for many public buildings: Between 2008 and 2017 alone, state capital funding for schools was cut by $20 billion, or 31%.

In the absence of funding for major building upgrades, simple in-room filtration technologies have been installed in some schools to improve ventilation in classrooms where many students spend their days in close quarters. However, these filters have only been deployed in a small fraction of public schools across the country.

This technology, called high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration, was born in the aerospace industry more than 50 years ago. HEPA filtration has been proved to efficiently remove microscopic airborne particles – including respiratory viruses – from air in higher occupancy spaces like classrooms.

Over the past few years, a new generation of HEPA filters have emerged from the U.S. commercial sector. These filters are more compatible with educational settings and less intrusive than their research-grade counterparts that are commonly used in the aerospace and pharmaceutical sectors, where “clean rooms” are needed. These latest models include improvements like multidirectional intake, reduced noise, lower power requirements, better durability and relatively small footprints.

HEPA filters have also become more widely used over the past couple of decades in homes in response to the recognition of rising asthma rates among children. But until the COVID-19 pandemic, they were rarely used in public school settings.

Bringing fresher air to classrooms

Over the 2021 spring academic semester, our team installed hundreds of new HEPA filters in public elementary classrooms in Denver, Colorado, the largest metropolitan school district in the Mountain West. These upgrades were possible due to a recent industry-university cooperative effort between the University of Colorado, the Intel foundation and the Carrier Corporation, a multinational ventilation equipment company. Together, these organizations contributed more than $500,000 for large-scale ventilation assessments, HEPA filter installations and other air quality improvements for Denver-area schools.

University of Colorado, Boulder, professor Mark Hernandez, engineering student Ricardo Reyes and architecture student Halle Sago take microbial counts on a classroom desk in Boulder in spring 2021. Glenn Asakawa/CU Boulder, CC BY-ND

A yet-unpublished poll of teachers in many of those classrooms overwhelmingly reported that this new generation of HEPA filters were welcome and easy to accommodate in their classrooms.

But like all engineering solutions, air filter effectiveness depends on proper installation. Our team’s field studies demonstrate that a simple “plug-and-play” approach will not address the complicated reality of aerosol exposures in densely occupied classrooms. In many situations, we have found HEPA filters that were undersized and placed inappropriately – such as facing a wall or in a remote corner – and sometimes not even turned on.

Networks of HEPA filters need to be thoughtfully installed, and the process must take into consideration other factors such as existing ventilation system performance, ceiling height, desk layouts and the presence or absence of ceiling fans. HEPA filters can only work up to their full potential if schools have the right number of them, they are the appropriate size and are placed in optimal positions.

The best HEPA filter installations consider details like student seating charts, high traffic areas and other variables based on student behaviors. Fortunately, building facility managers and custodial staff can be trained, with modest time investment, to install, operate and maintain HEPA filters in classrooms, with minimal distraction to teachers.

Air quality improvements are an investment in health and education

A 2020 review on indoor air quality strategies estimates that an individual HEPA filter, sized for elementary school classrooms with average energy use, costs about $361. This is consistent with our team’s experience in the Denver Public Schools system, where we typically installed at least two units per classroom at a cost of less than $800 per room. We estimate that this is roughly equal to the cost of one extra textbook per student over an academic year. In our opinion, that is well worth the potential improvement in indoor air quality in classrooms.

In-room HEPA filtration is a long-term investment that supplements existing ventilation systems. And though COVID-19 was the impetus for the installation of many HEPA filters, they are effective for far more than just reducing exposures to airborne viruses. Well-maintained and properly functioning filtration systems also reduce exposure to wildfire ash that can penetrate buildings, as well as allergens and other unwanted particles like automobile exhaust, tire detritus and construction dust.

But even the best indoor HEPA filtration cannot guarantee protection from airborne respiratory threats in schools. HEPA filters are effective only as part of an integrated approach. Ultimately, masks, distancing and reducing the number of students packed into tight spaces will determine how well students are protected from COVID-19.

HEPA filters are the modern analogy of “seat-belts” for indoor air quality in the age of COVID-19. If fitted correctly, they can only help lower the exposures to COVID-19 and other aerosols that students experience during their school days.

[Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week. Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter.]

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Mark Hernandez News

Mark Hernandez: Indoor air monitoring goes to school

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9News: Researchers at CU Boulder test classroom air purification devices

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Why Good Indoor Air Quality Matters — American Lung Association Podcast

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Can air purifiers help keep kids in school? New study seeks to find out.

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Mark Hernandez secures $1.5M in new awards from DEVCOM and CDC

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Tend to get sick when the air is dry? New research helps explain why

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Unique bioaerosol lab, dedicated students, made COVID research possible

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Air quality research in Denver schools highlighted by multiple media outlets

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Clearing the Air on COVID-19: Duo Campus Project Aimed at Keeping Schools Open

ColoradoSPH, CU Boulder combine NASA-inspired technology and innovative masks to monitor viruses in classroom

Reading the air

Testing student masks

Keeping levels at bay

Off

COVID-19 has spurred investments in air filtration for K-12 schools – but these technologies aren’t an instant fix

How The Conversation is different: We explain without oversimplifying.

A new age of filtration

Bringing fresher air to classrooms

Air quality improvements are an investment in health and education

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