When it comes to protecting yourself and your family from the novel coronavirus, wearing a mask is always the first line of defense. But what about the air in your home? Can air filters help reduce airborne contaminants, including viruses, in a small building or space? In this article, we'll explore how air purifiers work and whether they can be effective against COVID-19. Cleaning or filtering the air alone is not enough to protect people from COVID-19, but concerns about possible aerosol transmission make many people think about air purifiers as well. So how do the different types of air purifiers work? Are any of them effective against COVID-19? And should you buy one (or more) for your home? Harvard-CU's online Boulder Portable Air Purifier Calculator for Schools tool, created by Allen and Miller to help teachers choose effective classroom air filters, can give you a rough estimate for rooms of different sizes in your home. When the filters were turned off, the air in both rooms contained detectable amounts of other pathogens that cause infections in hospitals, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Streptococcus pyogenes.
The good news, Marr and Allen agree, is that portable air purifiers are very good at filtering out these smaller, more dangerous aerosols. Shelly Miller, PhD, an environmental engineer at the University of Colorado-Boulder, agrees that portable air purifiers are very good at removing viral particles from indoor air. By doing so, air purifiers can improve your home's indoor air quality, help relieve allergy and asthma symptoms, and remove toxins from the air. Therefore, the authors say, filtering the virus from the air could be more important in general wards than in ICUs.
With the extraordinary events of the past year, such as widespread wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic, which created increased interest in air quality, many homeowners and renters are buying air purifiers for the first time. If your main concern is to calm allergies and their symptoms, air purifiers that use HEPA filters are a good option. HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter) filters are one of the most common types used in air purifiers. They expel air through a fine mesh that traps extremely small particles.
But if you live alone and you're the only one there, the chance of contracting coronavirus from the air in your own home is practically nil. The team chose high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters to collect particles. The air purifiers we've tested, such as the Wynd home purifier and the Blueair Classic 205, use HEPA filters to collect particles. In conclusion, while wearing masks to protect yourself from coronavirus is always on the mind, your home's air quality is often overlooked. Air purifiers can help reduce airborne contaminants and improve indoor air quality.
However, they should not be used as a substitute for other preventive measures such as social distancing and wearing masks.
