The European Commission has launched a pilot project which aims to study air quality in schools from both the EU and candidate countries and Central and Eastern Europe. The study will develop guidelines to cover different situations in order to create healthy school environments.

The indoor air quality and has been much less studied than the air outside, even when research in this area can be applied to the indoor air in some cases. In addition, there is already a comprehensive legislative framework on the outside air, while the regulations governing the indoor air are made up of scattered initiatives and legislation.

Therefore, the Commission has decided to start studying the situation with the objective of creating a legislative framework in the future, to regulate indoor air quality, and the first point to consider are the schools. Since 20% of the population of the EU spends considerable time every day in schools and the incidence of asthma and other respiratory diseases in Europe is increasing, it has been considered like a good starting point to learn about the situation. The pilot project in the field of air quality in schools focuses on this fact.

One objective of this study is to assess the association of transport and the impact of climate change on school environments and the health effects of exposure to indoor air pollutants in children and make recommendations to prevent and reduce respiratory diseases to improving the quality of school environments and other related measures.

This will be measurements inside the schools to obtain new data on the concentration of major pollutants into the interior of the schools.The total budget available amounts to EUR 4 million. There shall be a single global services contract as part of a public tender to be selected later this year.