The Best Air Purifiers To Keep You & Your Family Healthy

Unpurified air may consist of a range of pollutants that are harmful. These can originate from outdoors, or from appliances, products and issues within your home, such as:

• Dust
• Pet dander
• Cigarette smoke
• Exhaust fumes
• Mold
• Cooking fumes
• Cleaning products
• Certain building materials
• Pests

These pollutants and irritants exist either as particulate matter – in the case of dust and pet dander – or as gases, such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide. The use of household cleaning products can also introduce chemicals into the atmosphere in your home. These chemicals are also known as ‘VOCs’, which stands for ‘Volatile Organic Compounds’. These compounds often react with other gases they are present in the air, creating different chemicals which can further irritate your airways and impact your health.

Indoor air pollution has been linked to an increased risk of many dangerous health issues, such as COPD, lung cancer, pneumonia, heart disease and strokes. Unpurified air can also exacerbate allergies. Allergic reactions to dust, pet hair, and pollen are common. If you suffer from allergies, you will usually experience inflamed and itchy eyes and nostrils, painful sinuses, and even difficulty breathing. Persistent exposure to allergens can weaken the immune system over time, making you more vulnerable to other germs and viruses. Asthma is another condition that can worsen in the presence of pollutants and potentially increase the frequency and severity of asthma attacks.

Young children are especially susceptible to the negative effects of air pollution, as their respiratory system consists of narrower airways that are not yet fully developed. This means that any irritation and subsequent inflammation can have more serious consequences than those seen in adults. Exposure to pollutants at a young age may also lead to the development of asthma later in life.

Filtration Method: HEPA, Ultraviolet Light, Carbon Filters

HEPA Air Purifiers

By far the most efficient air purifiers to improve your health are those that use High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance (HEPA) filters. HEPA air purifiers are very high quality and are designed to capture 99.97% of all pollutants and irritants larger than 0.3 microns. This means they are capable of removing dust, pollen, and even tobacco smoke. They are even more effective when combined with anti-microbial filters, which serve to kill bacteria which is trapped in the filter.

When shopping for a HEPA air purifier, you should be aware that only models that use the term HEPA or ‘True HEPA’ are genuine HEPA filters. Some manufacturers and models use the term ‘HEPA-Like’, ‘HEPA Type’ or ‘99% HEPA’ – these are not real HEPA filters and will not be as effective.

UV Air Purifiers

Sometimes combined with HEPA filters, UV purifiers utilize ultraviolet light waves to kill airborne viruses, bacteria, and other germs which are drawn into the air purifier. Therefore, HEPA + UV air purifiers are a very effective way of keeping your family protected against illness and infections.

Activated Carbon Filters

Activated carbon filters effectively trap pollutants which pass through them within the tiny pores in their surface. Once they have been trapped, the activated carbon then reacts with the pollutants to neutralize them, efficiently removing odors, smoke, and some troublesome chemicals from the atmosphere. Activated carbon filters alone, though, are not able to remove allergens and dust from the air. Therefore, if you suffer from allergies, an activated carbon filter is best used in combination with a HEPA filter. Many air purifiers will include carbon filters alongside the main HEPA filter for optimal results.

Noise Levels

When choosing the best air purifier for your health, you should check how noisy each model will be during operation. Some air purifiers emit more noise than others. If you are sensitive to noise, you are less likely to use such an air purifier for long periods or overnight as you may find it irritating and experience difficulty sleeping. Not only is a lack of sleep bad for your health, but switching off your air purifier to stop an annoying noise will mean you are not reaping its full benefits. Therefore, to get the most out of your air purifier, you should look for a model which works as silently as possible.

CADR Rating

The CADR rating describes the ‘Clean Air Delivery Rate’ of an air purifier. This is a reflection of the number of cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air which is cycled through the unit and has had all of the pollutants above a certain size removed.

Removal effectiveness is measured over three different types of particle sizes: dust, pollen, and smoke. This is because these are good examples of small, medium, and large particle sizes, respectively. The effectiveness is measured for each particle size, and the air purifier is then assigned a CADR score for each one. The highest possible CADR rating for smoke and pollen is 450, while dust has an upper limit of 400. The higher the score, the more efficient the air purifier is at keeping you healthy.

Ease of Cleaning

It is important that you clean your air purifier and change the filters as directed by the manufacturer. If you fail to do this, your air purifier will lose efficiency and may even start to become detrimental to your health. This is because when the filters become too full, they cannot trap any more pollutants and will instead simply blow them around your home.

Therefore, choosing an air purifier which is simple to clean is the best option for the health of you and your family. If this process is too difficult and time-consuming, you will be less likely to maintain it when needed, and may even leave it switched off until you can get around to it, thus leaving your home vulnerable to pollutants.

To sum up: