Sacramento schools remove controversial air cleaners after experts, teachers raise concerns
The Sacramento City Unified School District removed controversial air purifiers from classrooms this week and will begin testing the devices for how effectively they clean the air and whether they potentially released harmful chemicals, district officials confirmed.
As part of its reopening effort, the school district bought thousands of air cleaners, replacement filters and bulbs last year through a more than $6 million contract with Johnson Controls. But several experts identified potential concerns about the V-PAC SC air cleaners, saying the devices the district purchased are overpriced, inefficient and have unnecessary and unproven technology.
The school district has 480 units in its possession, according to spokesperson Tara Gallegos, and has paid Johnson Controls $1.22 million, a 20% down payment, for the devices and parts manufactured by Ultraviolet Devices, Inc.
The filters were removed after a Sacramento Bee story last week highlighted concerns with the devices. Teachers began noticing units being placed in classrooms last week, said Sacramento City Teachers Association president David Fisher. Immediately, SCTA and SEIU Local 1021, another union representing district employees, demanded that Sac City schools remove the units because of safety concerns.
Fisher said that teachers’ union has expressed skepticism about the air cleaners since last year, when Sac City Unified initially made the $6 million deal. It was the largest single CARES Act funding purchase Sac City Unified made, district records indicate.
“This is a huge debacle. We offered to bring in experts and they completely ignored us,” Fisher said. “We put it in writing so they wouldn’t make this mistake, and they just blew us off.”
Experts raised several issues with the V-PAC SC air cleaners. The devices have an Ultraviolet-C light attachment, which the district said in a staff report would “destroy” the coronavirus “instead of trapping the virus in a filter.”
But such claims about UV-C light technology are not backed up with sufficient scientific research, experts told The Bee. Several studies and researchers also identified concerns about a piece of the device that could potentially create harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen.
Test data show that based on industry standards, one device would effectively clean the air for a room roughly 130 square feet — meaning the district would need to use at least eight devices per 1,000 square foot classroom.
On Tuesday night, the school district’s attorney Raoul Bozio emailed the union and confirmed that “any units that may have been placed in classrooms have been removed.”
According to Gallegos, the district will be conducting “appropriate testing” to measure the air cleaners’ effectiveness and track things like ozone and formaldehyde emissions. As of now, the district has not canceled its contract with Johnson Controls, but will not receive additional units until it finishes running tests, Gallegos said in an email.
“As we mentioned in our previous responses, if the product is unable to meet our district’s needs, we will explore other options,” Gallegos said in an email. Gallegos did not clarify what other options might include.
Johnson Controls said in a statement that it supports the district’s decision to conduct additional tests.
“We strongly believe this technology is safe for use in school environments when used as directed and in accordance with applicable instructions,” said company spokeswoman Kellie Harris in an email. “The safety and health of everyone, particularly children, is very important.”
PBK Architects, a firm the district hired for $497,500 in CARES Act money last year, will conduct the testing on the air cleaners. It will be part of the firm’s overall inspection of classrooms and schools prior to reopening, and will not be an added cost, according to Gallegos.
“We’ll keep our community informed of the results of the testing and next steps,” Gallegos said in an email.
The withdraw and testing of the air cleaners comes as the district considered a new wave of budget cuts Thursday night. The Sacramento City Unified school board ultimately voted to cut about $3 million from its budget.
This story was originally published February 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.