Austin Air Helps Protect the Children of Erie County

We have some fantastic news to share this week. Over the coming months, we’ll be partnering with Erie County to provide every classroom in the district with an Austin Air HealthMate®.

A Very Special Initiative

Helping to keep the children of Erie County safe means a lot to us here at Austin Air. Many of our employees are parents, with children attending the schools where our units will be running. Knowing that our units will be installed in every classroom in our community gives us all peace of mind.

And this sentiment is shared with Mr. Mark C. Poloncarz, the Erie County Executive.

“The best part about this is the top-of-the-line system, the HealthMate® is made right in Buffalo at Austin Air …..We are going to buy every single one of these at Austin Air, which will be a boon for our economy.”

Not All Air Purifiers Are Made Equal

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a huge demand for air purifiers. But without clear guidance and bogus claims from many so-called air cleaning companies, a number of schools spent millions of dollars on air purifiers that could actually do more harm than good.

Austin Air Is the Right Choice for Schools

Here at Austin Air, we have been manufacturing medical-grade Certified HEPA Material and carbon air purifiers for more than 30 years. Using technology recommended by the EPA and the CDC, Austin Air provides the gold standard solution to keep students and teachers safe.

Our units are built using solid steel with a powder-coated paint finish for extreme durability. Our unrivaled filter capacity uses 60 sq. ft of medical-grade Certified HEPA Material and over 780 cubic inches of Activated Carbon and Zeolite. This guarantees a long filter life of up to 5 years and no costly filter replacements.

Designed for large spaces, our units will provide at least two air exchanges per hour, which along with other mitigation strategies recommended by ASHRAE, will significantly help minimize risk.

The robust design of the Austin Air HealthMate®, together with its long filter life, makes it the ideal choice for schools and other busy public spaces.

Clinically Proven Technology That’s Cost-Effective

Working with some of the country’s leading institutions, including Johns Hopkins and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospitals, our units are clinically proven to remove a wide range of airborne contaminants, including viruses, bacteria, and allergens. For many schools and indoor public spaces, portable Certified HEPA Material air purifiers like the Austin Air HealthMate® are a cost-effective way to reduce risk without the need for major renovations.

Mr. Poloncarz goes on to say that for many schools,

“it’s just impossible to get a Certified HEPA Material filtration system in place due to the age of the schools and the cost associated with putting a Certified HEPA Material filtration system on a large facility, and then there’s others that you really can’t do because they’re baseboard heat,”

Clean air in the classroom dramatically improves test scores too!

Over the last few years, much of our focus has been on reducing the risk of COVID-19. But the benefits of clean air in the classroom go far beyond COVID-19 transmission. A study carried out by a team from Annenburg Brown University (1) found that running an air purifier in the classroom improves a child’s performance in the same way as cutting class size by 30%. Clean air in the classroom also helps to reduce absenteeism for students and teachers, as asthma and allergy symptoms are reduced, along with other viral infections.

Thank You to Erie County!

Erie County used ELC funding for the units that will be delivered to schools in the next few weeks. In time to help protect students and teachers in the event of another COVID spike. So we’d like to take this opportunity to thank Erie County for partnering with a local company on this initiative and allowing us to make a difference in the lives of Erie County children.

For more on this story head over to Channel 7 HERE and Buffalo News HERE

We’re also proud to be recognized at the State of the County address with Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. You can watch his full address HERE (Austin is recognized at 14:58).