Is An Air Purifier Good For You?-3 (new) medical studies decide

This is a great question, one that gets more interesting the more you think about it. Most of us spend 90% of our time indoors in homes and workplaces that are better insulated and sealed than ever. So any pollutants or particles have a hard time getting out and tend to buildup in the recirculated air. This can lead to an indoor air quality that is worse than the outdoor air quality.

There is overwhelming evidence that particles in the air damage health, causing heart attacks, dementia, premature death and many other medical conditions. Air purifiers used properly can reduce particle count in the air as well as chemicals by 80% or more.

The effect of particles on human health is a fascinating subject. You may not yet realize it, but the epidemiological/clinical data suggests that if you reduced the particle count in your air, you would be smarter, happier, and even better looking!

So let us now look at some of these studies and decide are air purifiers worth it.

Health Effects of Airborne Particles

Airborne particles have been shown in clinical or epidemiological studies, often multiple studies, to cause-

Coronary heart disease-heart attacks
Strokes
Premature aging of the lungs
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Pneumonia
Cancer
Lymphoma
Diabetes
Skin problems including skin aging
Autoimmunity
Osteoporosis
Diabetes
Kidney disease
Dermentia
Cognitive decline-decrease in thinking ability
Parkinson’s disease
Vision impairment-age related macular degeneration and glaucoma
Impairment of sense of smell
Sleep disturbance
Depression
Anxiety
Increased risk of psychiatric problems
Decrease in fertility
Increased miscarriage
Exposure during pregnancy linked to neurological problems, asthma, lower IQ in child
Children-lower intelligence and delayed psychomotor development, faster decline in cognitive function in adulthood
Children-chest infection, asthma
Children-increased obesity
Children-increased psychiatric problems
Children-death rate increased
Premature aging?-ultrafine particles speed up several processes involve in aging
Premature death

You may like me be struck by the severity of the effects on the fetus and child. However stroke, dementia, breast cancer, blindness and premature death in adult life are also fairly severe consequences of particle pollution. There are more health conditions related to air pollution, this is a basic list-for further details please see this article.

Parents please note that air filters in classrooms in a US school increased pupils English and Math scores. In China air pollution was found to reduce cognitive (thinking) ability so much it was equivalent to 1 years less schooling.

So a significant reduction in particle count could make an air purifier good for your health.

Air Purifiers Reduce Particle Count

There is no doubt that air purifiers reduce airborne particles. A true HEPA filter is the cornerstone of modern air purifiers. UV light and ionic air purifiers do not deal with particles as effectively as a HEPA air purifier does. A HEPA filter easily deals with large particles such as pet dander, mold spores, dust, and dust mite but also fine particulate matter such as tobacco smoke.

To illustrate how well air purifiers can reduce particle count, I performed an experiment. I used an iQair HealthPro Plus air purifier on its maximum setting providing 9.4 air changes per hour, in a room with the door and windows closed. The readings were on normal room air and I used a Trotec PC200 particle counter to count 0.5um diameter particles. This size is the smallest particle size that laser diffraction technology can accurately measure.

So you can see with the air purifier on its maximum setting and providing 9.4 air changes per hour, the reduction in particle count only mildly exceeded the EPAs minimum target. This shows that it is best to be careful in buying an air purifier and to check that it really will deliver a minimum of 5 air changes per hour for your room on its second to highest setting. In general, you will never be able to tolerate an air purifier on its maximum setting for long as it is too noisy.

However, there are other airborne pollutants such as chemicals, so nearly all air purifiers also have an activated carbon filter. Activated carbon filters remove a wide range of chemicals particularly volatile organic chemicals and even ozone. Volatile organic compounds are responsible for odor and so an activated carbon filter will remove or at least markedly reduce an unpleasant odor.

An HVAC whole house air purifier is possible, but a HEPA specification one will probably need remodeling of your HVAC system. HVAC filters can be very poor at dealing with indoor air pollution. You should check that your HVAC system has a minimum of a MERV13 filter as lower MERV specification filters can be so poor that they remove less than 50% of airborne particulates, as explained in this article. Before you upgrade your HVAC filter to create a whole home air purifier, you should check with an HVAC engineer as an upgraded filter will reduce airflow through the system and may damage it, as explained in this article.

Air Purifiers Also Reduce Chemicals

Air purifiers have carbon filters to remove chemicals. The most common chemicals that need removing are those in cigarette or wildfire smoke.

The main chemicals in wildfire smoke are-

Acrolein
Formaldehyde
Benzene
Hydrogen cyanide

Most of these chemicals have been linked to cancer.

These chemicals can be removed by absorption onto activated carbon in air purifier filters. This is explained in more detail in this article.

Different air purifiers have different amounts of activated carbon in their filters and so a different ability to remove chemicals. There is an article outlining the best air purifiers for reducing chemicals in this article.

So the removal of chemicals from the air can also make an air purifier good for your health.

Air Purifiers are Worth Buying For People With Some Medical Conditions and Possibly for Pregnancy/Children

If you have a medical condition, then you should ask your doctor if it could be affected by particles in the air and if so consider using an air purifier. It would be a good idea for anyone who has any condition on the above list of medical conditions or in this article to have air purification at home. Also women who are pregnant or are intending to become pregnant should consider using an air purifier, especially if they are living in a polluted environment. An air purifier should be used especially at home but possibly even at work-there are good desktop personal air purifiers.

There are 24 million people in the U.S. with asthma, including 6 million children, it would be wise for these people to at least try a good air purifier with good technique to see if reducing airborne allergens makes their asthma any better. In addition, there are at least 6 million more with seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis who should at least try an air purifier to reduce airborne allergen to see if this eases their symptoms.

For People Without Medical Conditions

Living in Highly Polluted Areas

If you live in a highly polluted area, it is essential to have an air cleaner/purifier to lower your pollution risk.

Examples of such areas-

near busy roads
areas that have forest fires
cities
near some forms agricultural production

For People in Areas With Low Pollution Levels

Ultrafine Particles

Even in low pollution areas there are 1-2 million ultrafine particles per cubic liter of air. A liter is about 1/4 of a gallon. You will be breathing in about 600 litres of air per hour containing about 1 billion ultrafine particles. As explained above ultrafine particles can reach the deepest parts of the lungs and enter our bloodstreams.

Ultrafine particles may also increase the rate at which we age! For further information please see this article on ultrafine particles-Airborne Ultrafine Particles-do they accelerate aging?

California Wildfire. Los Angeles Fire Near the City. Fires in the United States. Smoke and fire in the mountains of California. State of emergency. Plumes of smoke into the air

So it is possible that everyone would benefit from an air purifier-unless of course particles entering our bloodstreams and our brains is a good thing!

Fine Particles

So should people without medical condition living in low pollution level areas consider purifying their air? I would suggest that you buy an air quality sensor/meter and measure the air quality in different rooms in your home. Certainly if the PM 2.5 is above 5 g/m3, the WHO safe level, then it probably would be wise for you to buy air purifiers and reduce particle count in the air. However even if the PM 2.5 is below this level you may wish to look at some of the recent medical evidence outlined in this article. Also you may live in an area with particular pollution problems for instance with chemicals, and that may be the main reason that you need to use an air purifier.

If you are going to stake your future health on measuring the air quality in your home, I would recommend reading this helptul article-“How to test air quality in your home“

Are Air Purifiers a Waste of Money?

For an air purifier to definitely be a waste of money an enormous amount of scientific evidence concerning the effect of low levels of airborne particles on health would have to be wrong. Or you would have to be in the 2% of the population that live in a very low pollution area, as well as not producing much indoor air pollution in your home by for instance cooking for long periods.

Are Air Purifiers Good?

As a whole, the scientific and medical evidence clearly points to many adverse health effects from airborne particles. Air purifiers can lower these more than 80%. So on balance using an air purifier seems an extremely good idea. However, no one is likely to notice beneficial effects immediately, but over the years an air purifier user would be expected to have better health.

If you do Decide an Air Purifier is Worth it-important points in buying and using an air purifier

In one review of studies where air purifiers were used, fine particulate matter was reduced between 23-92%. Bear in mind the EPA recommends a minimum reduction of 80%. So even in experimental studies with training in how to use the air purifiers, most air purifier users failed to hit this target. On the other hand, it shows that air purifiers, when used well, can decrease particle count by 90%. This just emphasizes the importance of how you use the air purifier.

Buying an air purifier-the air purifier should have a true HEPA filter, adequate air flow (CADR) at a noise that you can tolerate for long periods. The air purifier should be “smart” that is programmable or capable of being made smart. The most difficult part is buying one with an adequate air flow at a noise that you can tolerate for long periods as most air purifiers are too loud on their maximum fan speed and manufacturers usually do not give data on air flow and noise at lower fan speeds. There is helpful advice about buying an air purifier here-“Buying an air purifier”. Alternatively, just buy the recommendations on this site. If you want the quietest air purifier you may wish to read this article-“Best Quiet Air Purifiers“, if you need one that will remove particles very well but is particularly good at removing chemicals from the air, for example from forest fires, please see this article-“Best Air Purifier for Smoke“.
Position the air purifier at least 12 inches from any wall-so that the air coming out of the air purifier joins in with the circulation of air in the room. There is advice about using an air purifier in this article-“How to Use an Air Purifier“.
Run the air purifier for at least 30 minutes before entering the room. This is because it takes an air purifier this long to reduce the particle count in the room. So the air purifier that you buy needs to be smart or capable of being made smart by plugging it into a smart plug.
Run the air purifier continuously when you are in the room at the highest setting that you can tolerate long term. This is because the higher the setting that you run the air purifier on the lower the particle count in the air will be. There is no lower threshold known below which human health does not improve, so the lower the particle count/PM2.5 the better. Health aspects of particle count/PM2.5 are outlined in this article-“Airborne Particles and Chemicals Affect Us All Now“.
Never run the air purifier using its inbuilt sensor-there are 7 reasons that you should not do this as outlined in this article-“How to Use an Air Purifier“.
Always test the air with an air quality meter where you are going to sit at the height in the room where your mouth and nose are. Comparing the measurements before and 45 minutes after switching the air purifier on there should be at least an 80% reduction in particle count as the EPA recommends. Testing that the particle count/PM2.5 is adequately reduced by your air purifier is the most important thing that you need to do. Air quality meters can be brought really quite cheaply eg $35, there is a helpful article about them here-“How to Test Air Quality in Your Home“.
How many air purifiers do I need?-at least 2 but maybe 5 or more. Please see this article “How many air purifiers“.

Conclusion-is an air purifier good for you?

There is no doubt that inhalation of particulate matter harms human health. There is also no doubt that air purifiers when used with good technique lower particle count more than 80%. When particle count is lower in the environment, there are fewer heart attacks and strokes. So it may seem obvious that this makes an air purifier good for your health.

However, there are few long-term trials showing a benefit from using an air purifier, please see this article. So you may prefer to wait until there are more long-term trials of air purifier use. The downside of this approach is you that you may wait 20 years or longer only to find out that you should have been using an air purifier all along. Personally I feel that buying an air purifier is worth it.

Now it is not an exact analogy, but in another form of pollution there may be parallels. For many years even doctors said that there was no evidence that cigarette smoking harmed health and that there was no evidence that stopping was beneficial. Similarly, there is currently no conclusive evidence that using an air purifier is beneficial although there is overwhelming evidence that particles in the air damage health even at low levels and that air purifiers effectively reduce particle count in the air. Anyway, it would be impossible for conclusive evidence to be available currently as no clinical trials with the right protocol have even been done.

Personally I feel that buying an air purifier is worth it.

So I hope that this helps you decide about whether it is worth buying an air purifier.

Does an air purifier require any maintenance?

On the whole an air purifier usually needs the pre-filter cleaning usually every 4 weeks, the HEPA filter and activated carbon filter will need changing once a year. The inside of the machine will need cleaning with a damp cloth when the filters are changed. This is for an average air purifier there are machines that need more or less maintenance.
There is an article with further information here.

What is the best air purifier on the market today?

The iQair HealthPro Plus is the machine with the highest specification. However for some people too noisy at high fan speeds needed for large rooms. If you have a room over 290 sq ft the Coway 400s would be the best choice and is a close second on specifications.
There is an extensive article on the iQair HealthPro Plus here.

How do you know if your air purifier is working?

Assuming that air is coming out of the machine, the only way of telling is to measure the air quality in the room at the point at which you are breathing the air. You should get a drop in particle count or PM2.5 reading of at least 80% comparing the air with the air purifier off to that with it switched on. You should always buy an air quality meter whenever you buy your first air purifier as you cannot tell what the particle count is with your senses. In medical studies people using air purifiers often did not achieve even a 50% reduction in particle count. It is harder to hit the EPAs target than you may realise and without an air quality meter you are very unlikely to succeed.

What settings should you run an air purifier on?

You should run the air purifier on its maximum setting for 30-45 minutes before you step into the room. Then when you are in the room you should run it on the maximum speed that you find the noise it makes alright to live with. You should check the air quality on this speed to see if it is fine that is shows a minimum 80% drop in particle count. Then usually you should leave it on this speed whilst you are in the room. If you have a room that is very well sealed you could try reducing the speed and checking the airborne particle count on lower speeds.

Are air purifiers safe?-one type is