A DIY air purifier that costs under $100 to make is taking America’s classrooms by storm [But not @mcps @mocoboe !!!]

Late last year, Shiven Taneja was a person in search of a solution. His community of Mississauga, in Ontario, was entering its fifth COVID wave and Omicron was a fearsome, fast-spreading variant–yet rapid tests were in short supply and the availability of booster shots severely limited. He wanted a way to reduce risk.

Taneja found a potential answer in the same place many of us look: online. Reading about a do-it-yourself air filtration system designed to reduce aerosol particulates, he realized he could construct such a model for his own home at a fraction of the cost of a commercial HEPA purifier. Taneja quickly offered to build similar systems for others in his community at cost–and the requests came pouring in. A DIY solution to filtering the air had suddenly grown legs.

“My family’s living room became a warehouse for storing filters and fans,” Taneja told me. Since December, he says, he has delivered scores of home-built filtration systems, primarily to seniors and the immunocompromised who might not be able to do so for themselves.

All this would be impressive under any circumstance. It’s slightly more so when you consider that Taneja is 15 years old. And as we move into what may well be the endemic phase of Covid, his solution is one that many others around the world are also finding...

A DIY air purifier that costs under $100 to make is taking America’s classrooms by storm | Fortune