Belgrade to purchase air purifiers for schools

The city authorities in Belgrade will purchase air purifiers for their youngest residents in order to improve the quality of the air they breathe.

The Secretariat for Environmental Protection of the City of Belgrade has announced a tender for the procurement of 11,500 air purifiers.

For years now air pollution has been a major problem for Western Balkan countries. So far, air purifiers for the youngest were bought by Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, in 2019, and by Sarajevo, the capital of BiH, a year later. Despite the problems with air quality, Belgrade has not yet done so.

According to a recent research, air pollution causes over 1,200 premature deaths per year in people under the age of 18 across 32 European countries and significantly increases the risk of disease later in life.

The procurement is based on Belgrade’s action plan adopted in 2021

The Belgrade city authorities have said that procurement will be carried out in line with an action plan for the reduction of air pollution, adopted in 2021.

In June 2021, the Belgrade City Assembly adopted the Air Quality Plan with the Action Plan for the implementation of measures to reduce air pollution for the period 2021-2031.

One of the measures in the Action Plan is to assess the possibility of installing air purification systems in urban areas.

By installing air purifiers in preschool and school facilities, air quality would be significantly improved, with a positive impact on the health of the youngest population, according to the public call.

Bids are to be submitted by September 25, while the deadline for the delivery and installation of the air purifiers is December 20, 2023.

When it comes to technical characteristics, the purifiers are intended for rooms of at least 60 square meters, and they need to have a clean air delivery rate (CADR) of at least 500 cubic meters per hour and use a filter of at least H13 HEPA with activated carbon.

The purifiers should also be equipped with PM sensors, a UVC sterilizer, a photocatalytic filter, and an ionizer, with a maximum input power of 50 W.