Deciding Your Clear Expectations For Home Air Purifiers What You Need To Do Establish your own clean air standard for the air purifiers you're considering. Why? Because your desired health benefit depends on how clean you can make your air, and the cleaner the better. Allow me to share the next steps to finding the right air cleaner: Determine your personal standard for the clean air you need Discover which types of air purifiers may meet your standard By understanding "clean air" and how different air cleaners perform you'll easily eliminate poor quality air purifiers from consideration. I'll show you how... Focus on the benefits of clean air Your first step to finding the right air cleaner was focusing on the specific health benefit your family needs. Why do this first? Because it keeps you intent on your real goal, helping you continually ask, "Will this air purifier really work for me?" Keeping your purpose clear in mind is essential to finding the one best air cleaner for your family. Would you like to add some extra benefits to expect from your air purifier? Consider the following list... What should clean air do for you? Reduce your exposure to allergens, irritants, illnesses, odors, and chemical toxins Help reduce symptoms and control asthma, allergies, COPD, MCS and improve your overall well being Help you reduce dependency on medication and help you avoid undesirable side effects Help you enjoy your home life to the full, increasing wellness and enabling you to do more of the things that make you happy You don't need a PhD to choose an air cleaner that will give you these benefits. All you need to know is a few simple "golden rules". What do I really need to know about air cleaning? And keep it simple! Here are the basic facts: All air contaminants are either irritants, allergens, infectious or a combination of these. To clean your air you must remove: Irritants: Smoke Chemical fumes Perfume Strong odors Cooking fumes Dust Allergens: Pollen Mold Animal dander Cockroach allergens Dust mites Infectious agents: Bacteria and viruses Colds Flu Bronchitis Chest infection Regardless of your primary health concern, your clean air benefits depend on your removing all contaminants. Why? Because health problems related to irritants, like asthma or COPD, are made worse by allergens. Likewise, allergies are made worse by irritants. And everyone is at risk where infectious agents are present. What are the keys to controlling them? You only need to know about two relevant features for all air pollutants: Their size Their quantity You may thus judge air cleaners by two basic features: Particle size removed Efficiency, the quantity removed Here is everything you need to know about airborne particles: Particles in the air range from .005 micron to 100 microns. Anything larger than 10 micron settles out rather quickly, too quickly to be affected by air purification in any meaningful way. But if it settles out, you're not breathing it, right? Particles from 10 micron down to 2.5 micron deposit in the nose and throat where they cause sinus irritation and allergies. Most Important: Particles smaller than 2.5 micron are lung penetrating particles. These are the most toxic and damaging to health, particularly those below 0.1 micron, whether you're healthy or suffering a chronic respiratory condition. These particles are the ones linked to increased heart disease, heart attack and stroke. How can I use these basic facts about air pollutants to compare air purifiers? Further discussion of the abilities of different types of air purifiers will follow in our next step. For now, let us say this: There are hundreds, even thousands, of air cleaners being thrust upon consumers like yourself by marketers. All make their own bold claims and promises. But you will be in a position to quickly dismiss the vast majority as unworthy of further consideration. How? You already know that the most significant particles you need to concern yourself with are those less than 2.5 micron. I'll be generous at this point and say that all air cleaners do a reasonably good job of removing particles in the 2.5 to 10 micron range. But that isn't the clean air standard that will give you the specific health benefits we've talked so much about. The most significant benefit to your immediate and long term health results from removing these smallest micron and sub-micron particles. Let this become your own clean air standard. Now that you have a clear performance expectation of your home air cleaner I'd like to invite you to continue our discussion with the next important step - Comparing different types of air purifiers. Return to top of article Custom Search