Two students in India developed a low-cost air filter that can be attached to existing fans in classrooms, and the filters are already impacting 10,000 students.
Here's what to know
Krish Aggarwal, a student at New Delhi's Sanskriti School, and fellow student Samarth Meattle co-founded Project Vayu to tackle indoor air pollution in schools. Aggarwal received a 2026 Diana Award for that work, according to Mint.
The filter expands like a balloon while the fan runs, increasing the area available for filtration without obstructing airflow, according to Project Vayu's website. Its electrostatically charged fibers trap fine particles, including PM2.5.
The Diana Award honors young people's social action and humanitarian work in tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, according to Mint. On its official website, the award says Project Vayu has reached more than 10,000 students by distributing filters in underprivileged Delhi schools.
More background
Classrooms do not necessarily offer protection from polluted outdoor air. Fine particles can make their way inside, exposing students to pollution even indoors. According to Mint, Aggarwal and Meattle designed the filter so schools could purify their air for less than the cost of commercial air purifiers.
Schools participating in Project Vayu receive the attachment for free; the project's website puts manufacturing costs at about ₹140 apiece (about $1.49 at current exchange rates).
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Project Vayu's website reports that PM2.5 concentrations in closed-room tests fell from 158 micrograms per cubic meter to 11 micrograms per cubic meter. The drop of more than 90% occurred within an hour.
The team produced 602 filters during an initial program that reached approximately 8,000 students in 295 Delhi classrooms, according to Mint.
What's being done?
The attachments require no extra hardware or specialized skills to use, and the team supplies monthly replacement filters, according to the project's website.
Aggarwal has also called for young people to take a greater role in climate action and for environmental responses to be grounded in evidence, Mint reported. His school-focused work offers a concrete example of students taking local action through a project built around equipment their community already uses.
The team plans to bring the initiative to another 45 schools in New Delhi.
Where can I learn more?
Polluted classroom air is a concern well beyond Delhi. These stories cover smoke exposure at U.S. schools, Vietnam's smog measures, and particle-trapping technology in South Korea.
• At U.S. schools, wildfire smoke days rose eightfold, and indoor air wasn't always safer.
• DIY classroom air filters cut particles by 61% while costing a fraction of commercial purifiers.
• In India, Mumbai's pollution overtook Delhi's, prompting judges to question how officials still sleep.
• In Vietnam, red-alert smog rules could move classes online, send workers home, and curb motorbikes.
• South Korean researchers fitted cars with particle-trapping grilles that capture at least 95% of fine particles.
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