Making an Asthma Air Purifier Work for You
An asthma air purifier may be, in truth, an absolute necessity for your home if you, or someone in your family, is suffering from this debilitating condition. Asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness and is the second most prevalent respiratory condition causing confinement at home for adults. Further highlighting the seriousness of this disease, each year, asthma causes more than 18 million days of restricted activity, and millions of visits to physicians’ offices and emergency rooms.
In considering the acquisition of and asthma air purifier, there are some important things you should know. In this article, you will become acquainted with the essential facts.
Asthma Air Purifiers - Four Steps to Take So They Really Work
If an asthma air purifier is to be effective there are four steps to take when identifying the air purifier that will help the most. First, decide what the offending airborne triggers are for your asthma. Second, know the micron size of the particulate(s) that cause your breathing difficulties. Third, choose a high efficiency particle arresting (HEPA) air purifier. And fourth, determine the size of the area that you need to clean. Taking these 4 steps before you start to look for an air purifier insure that your air purifier will be effective in improving your indoor air quality, thereby improving your quality of life.
Identify the trigger(s).
Asthma can be triggered by one specific particulate, or a combination of particulates such as dust, dust mites, pollens, mold spores, tobacco smoke, chemicals odors, pet dander, and many more to numerous to name here. Knowing which of these particulates trigger a reaction is crucial in selecting the best air purifier for your asthma. Some purifiers do really well at removing dust and dander because they are designed for particulates, but not so well with airborne chemicals and odors. Other air purifiers may be designed to remove gases and odors, but may not do as well at removing particulates.
Know the micron size of the particulate(s) you want to remove.
A micron is defined as one-millionth of a meter. The following list of common pollutants gives you a better idea of micron measurement. A 1 inch postage stamp is 25,400 microns, and the period at the end of this sentence is 615 microns. A human hair is 40 to 300 microns. A mold spore is 20 to 30 microns. Pollens are 10 to 1,000 microns; tobacco smoke is .01 to 1 micron. Dust mites are 100-300 microns. Pet dander is 12-100 microns. Viruses are .005-0.3 microns.
Choose a high efficiency particle arresting (HEPA) air purifier
HEPA air purifiers are designed 99.97% of airborne particulates down to .3 microns. So matching your particulate size to an air purifier designed to remove those size particulates is crucial. Also, determine which kind of pollutant the HEPA is best at removing. For example, if your asthma is triggered by smoke, focus on HEPA air purifiers designed to remove smoke.
Choose an air purifier that is built to clean the square footage that you need.
This suggestions sounds like a no-brainer. But the best HEPA air purifier in the world will not be effective if put in a room that is bigger than it is designed to clean. So measure your space accurately, and also account for ceiling height. 700 square feet with 8 foot ceilings is a lot less square footage than 700 square feet with 12 foot ceilings.
Taking these four steps will put you well on your way to finding an air purifier that really helps with your asthma.
Author, Debbie Davis, is President of PurerAir.com which offers Austin Air HEPA air purifiers for the improvement of indoor air quality. Click on the following link to see the Austin Air JR HEGA HEPA Air Purifier.
Tags: Air Purifiers, allergens, allergies, asthma, asthmaticsRelated posts
April 16 2008 | asthma | No Comments »