Many of us don’t realise we use filters every day and how it can actually benefit you. Take your car that has an inbuilt filter for air, your hoover has a filter to trap dust, your kitchen tap has a filter to purify the water and even your hair dryer has a lint filter. Even though we use these types of filters daily, many of us do not filter our air.
Now, you may be thinking polluted air is everywhere, and your right you can’t escape it, but you can reduce the number of pollutants you breathe in at home with air purifiers.
How Bad is Indoor Air?
Firstly, indoor air quality is usually a lot worse than outdoor air quality, this is because natural processes such as constantly moving air and plants consuming carbon dioxide, help to keep the air outside clean. Whereas, indoor air is not constantly circulated unless you have a window open 24/7. You would like to think your home air is clean, but unfortunately, pollutants such as pollen, pet dander, cleaning solvent, mould, bacteria, fungi, viruses, cigarette smoke, cosmetics and plastics can all be found in your home. Breathing dirty air puts you at risk for asthma, allergies and other respiratory problems.
How do Air Purifiers Work?
Air purifiers or filters may seem like a fairly new idea but they have been around for years in the form of protective masks. Some air purifiers use electrical attraction which is where synthetic fibres create static charges to attract particles. These types of air purifiers are great for people who don’t want costly replacement filters.
Ionic air purifiers use small charged wires to create gas molecules with negative ions that stick to airborne particles, these will then be attracted to the filter. These air purifiers will only remove certain types allergens and won’t be as effective against odours and chemicals.
Ozone filters generate high electrical currents that convert oxygen to ozone. Ozone is a powerful oxidant that will break down allergens. However, Ozone is harmful and when created artificially by an air purifier, it can aggravate allergies and asthma, coughing, throat irritation, chest pain, and shortness of breath.
Whats the Most Common cause to being Sensitive to Allergens?
The most common cause of indoor air pollution are pets with fur or feathers, these types of pets cause pet dander which is small bits of skin your pet will shred every day. The next common cause is smoke caused by cigarettes or a fireplace. Tobacco smoke contains 250 harmful chemicals which can potentially cause cancer and people who are susceptible to second-hand smoke are more likely to be affected than the actual smoker. Air purifiers can help reduce the number of contaminants in the air produced by smoke, but do not fully reduce the toxins as they easily attach to many surfaces.
Air purifiers are well worth considering if you are sensitive to many allergens, we recommend looking for a good quality air filter such as Airfree and LightAir. Both of these brands offer a range of purifiers to meet different needs at competitive prices. Although most of us take our air for granted, we hope we have provided good reasons to purchase an air purifier.