The UN event’s co-convenors Brown University’s School of Public Health and The Australian Academy of Science and Burnet Institute teamed together to lead the global effort at the UN declaring healthy indoor air a human right. The event was also livestreamed on UN Web TV.

UConn School of Medicine’s Marina Creed, APRN, director of the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative and assistant professor of Neurology and Public Health Sciences, was one of over 60 partnering organizations, advocates, experts, and thought leaders from the world’s Universities, health care institutions, organizations, businesses, and community groups signing in-person the ceremonial Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air.

The pledge’s goal is to drive action on making healthy indoor air a reality in all indoor spaces. The pledge is the first international effort to formally recognize clean indoor air as essential to health and well-being. It already has over 165 signatories.

”The Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air reminds us that the air we breathe indoors—where we spend 90 percent of our lives—is essential to health and well-being,” says Creed of UConn. “The time has come for clean air in classrooms across Connecticut. By signing the Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air at the United Nations, we affirm that clean indoor air is a human right and commit to mobilizing action. At UConn, our team is thinking globally and acting locally — helping schools transform a simple, hands-on science project into an innovative clean air solution that protects health, strengthens learning environments, while delivering a lasting impact.”

Creed of UConn signed the global pledge on behalf of UConn and her ongoing successful UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative that is deploying effective and inexpensive build-it-yourself air filter technology and low-cost air sensors to public school classrooms and schools across Connecticut at no cost.

The expansion of her Initiative work that began in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic is made possible thanks to the recent awarding of $11.5 million in state support to UConn School of Medicine for the distribution of materials with STEM education plans for the DIY Corsi-Rosenthal air filter devices. The State Bond Commission in Connecticut approved the funding for UConn to purchase equipment and materials to construct and install air purifiers in individual classrooms as part of SAFE-CT (Supplemental Air Filtration for Education) under the Clean Air Equity Response Program to put the health of students and their teachers first.

The devices are built in 30 minutes with just $60 of hardware store materials. Joint testing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and UConn showed that in just 60 minutes, the air purifiers effectively remove over 99% of airborne viruses including the virus that causes COVID-19. Research findings also show that they work better than expensive commercial HEPA air cleaners.

Creed now co-chairs the Connecticut Coalition for Healthy School Environments that advises Connecticut’s School Indoor Air Quality Working Group founded in 2022, and co-chaired by state Senator Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) and state Representative Jennifer Leeper (D-Fairfield).

“We truly appreciate your support,” shared co-host Professor Bronwyn King, Special Advisor for Clean Air for the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, Australia with the crowd of experts and advocates gathered at the UN. “We have been waiting a longtime. The moment has arrived for indoor air quality to take its rightful place here at United Nation headquarters at the heart of global priorities. It is the first time the global indoor air community has convened here, united in one goal to drive action globally to make indoor air safe and healthy.”

“Help us breathe a little bit easier and make indoor air spaces healthy and safe,” also shared cohost Dr. Georgia Lagoudas, Senior Fellow at Brown University School of Public Health. “Let’s make healthy indoor air a reality.”