EOHSI

An air purifier is a small appliance meant to remove various types of particulate matter from the air, says Robert Laumbach, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) at the Rutgers School of Public Health. That includes particles that are created indoors like cigarette smoke, mold spores, emissions from stoves, and dust that’s suspended in the air, and outdoor air pollution that makes its way inside, Laumbach says. Air purifiers take in polluted air, filter out and trap particles, and then blow out newly filtered air.

Laumbach notes that some brands will market “medical grade” or “super” HEPA, but it doesn’t mean the purifier will work any better than a regular or “true” HEPA filter. There’s no standard for this allegedly enhanced filter, but Laumbach says it’s likely more tightly woven or contains thicker webbing, which can block air from filtering through and actually make the purifier less effective. For this reason, we try to avoid products that claim to have a medical grade or super HEPA filter, and note when they make these claims.

Read Complete Article

(Source: SELF.com- June 30, 2020)