For the time being, there will be no air purifiers in the Oberammergau elementary and middle school.
Much to the annoyance of the non-party voter community (PWG).
Oberammergau
- At least one wish unites parents and politicians these days: schoolchildren back to school.
As quickly and as safely as possible.
But the dividing line already runs at the point of security, as the Oberammergau municipal council shows.
There was agreement on the thesis addressed by all parliamentary groups, most beautifully Karl-Heinz Götz from the non-party voter community (PWG): "The health of children is important to me." When asked how to protect the offspring, they drifted Opinions differ.
In their application, the yellow ones suggested a new ventilation concept for schools and daycare centers that takes air purifiers into account for the classrooms.
The later refined proposal - devices for the 15 classrooms of elementary and middle school - fell through with a narrow majority (11: 9 votes) in the committee.
Does it make sense?
Markus Köpf from the CSU
Does Oberammergau save on the health of the little ones, as Karl Heinz Götz says?
Well, the question is so striking, the matter is so complex.
It has not yet been clarified whether the (but rather expensive) special devices have a really big effect and significantly reduce the viral load.
The free ones spoke of several studies.
Markus Köpf, appropriately school authority director, held against the assessment of the Federal Environment Agency, which did not research any evidence-based benefit.
The systems are "neither stipulated by the state, nor have their effectiveness proven," emphasizes the CSU man.
He campaigned for all hygiene protection in schools, but asked himself: "Does that make sense?" Especially in view of the costs.
Roughly 3500 euros are charged per device.
With - initially calculated - 29 rooms (15 classrooms and 14 specialist rooms) this makes around 100,000 euros.
The Free State does promise funding.
But how high it turns out depends on the general interest of the Bavarian municipalities.
The more people report, the less everyone receives.
A further 3000 euros in maintenance costs would be incurred in the future for replacing the filters.
In addition, the systems (with a 60-day delivery time) should not reach the local school until May, which was not an argument for Michael Fux von der Gelben.
With a view to autumn and winter 2021/22, he considered the ventilation systems to be “absolutely targeted measures”.
After a few minutes of deliberation, the freelancers leveled their application and for the time being concentrated on systems for the 15 classrooms (around 50,000 euros without funding).
But even with this they did not achieve the majority.
The main argument of the other side remained the question of benefit.
Because the machines do not compensate for the ventilation in the classroom.
The consumer advice center provided extensive information on this in November 2020.
Tenor: air purifiers do not replace ventilation or measures such as distance and mask.
They cannot prevent transmissions at close range (1.5 meters), but they can filter aerosols containing viruses from the air.
Another objection to a quick shot in only 15 rooms brought up Simon Fischer from the CSU.
"It is contradicting itself to set up the systems in fewer rooms and to leave the day-care centers outside."
Then really nobody could understand that.
