“Many of us assume that the indoor air quality in our homes is much safer than the air outdoors. However, the Environmental Protection Agency has found that indoor air pollution is one of the most hazardous environmental threats to humans! If you’re like the average individual, you probably spend a good amount of time indoors, so it’s important to educate yourself regarding indoor air quality.
Your windows may be spotless and your floors may sparkle, but for millions of adults and children with allergies, asthma, and other respiratory conditions, a house is only as clean as its air.
Though it might be hard to believe, indoor air can be five times dirtier than what we breathe outside, exposing us to carcinogens, including radon and formaldehyde, as well as quotidian lung-gunking impurities, such as pollen, dust mites, pet dander, and a variety of particulate matter created when we burn candles or cook.
Judging from the skyward trend in sales figures, Americans are turning to portable air purifiers in increasing numbers, paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars to reduce indoor air pollutants and the sniffles, sneezes, coughs, and asthma attacks they can trigger.
The Environmental Protection Agency evaluates the energy consumption of air purifiers for its Energy Star program but is careful to issue a disclaimer about their health benefits: “While some home air cleaning devices may be useful in some circumstances, EPA makes no broad endorsement of their use.” According to the agency, the best way to avoid health problems caused by indoor air pollution is to control or eliminate the sources of pollutants (by banning smoking in the house, for instance) and to ventilate the home with clean outdoor air.
Though the benefits of portable air purifiers are still being debated by the scientific community, recent research suggests that they could protect against the ill effects of air pollution under certain conditions. A small, well-designed study, funded in part by China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission and conducted at a Shanghai university, found that the use of filter-based air purifiers was associated with reducing the adverse health effects caused by polluted air. Another study, conducted by Canada’s British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and other Canadian governmental and academic groups, concluded that the use of portable air purifiers can lower indoor levels of particulate matter caused by smoke pollution and, in doing so, benefit respiratory and cardiovascular health.
Energy Star. Models that carry this familiar blue logo are 40 percent more energy efficient than non-Energy Star models. That’s an important consideration for an appliance that CR suggests people run 24 hours a day.”
Consumer Reports (https://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/indoor-air-quality/how-to-improve-indoor-air-quality-a7861970027/?EXTKEY=SM72CR0D&gclsrc=3p.ds&&gclid=ce189d340a06186a625cfaa)