Do Air Purifiers Actually Work?
The promise of an air purifier is an enticing one: An appliance designed to cleanse the air in your home, getting rid of all the impurities including odors, smoke, dust, and pet dander. Given the fact that indoor air can have levels of certain pollutants up to five times higher than outdoor air, we get it. Some models may even be able to target bad air that creeps into your apartment or home, especially if you live in an area affected by pollution, or natural disaster.
Most people shouldn't be worried about exposure to temporary pollutants like smoke or exhaust in the air outside your home, as they dissipate over time, explains Ryan Roten, D.O., an emergency medicine doctor with Redlands Community Hospital in California. "In the short term, people will have asthma-like symptoms, primarily, or symptoms closer to allergies or sinusitis, including stuffy nose and a bit of a cough," says Dr. Doten, who has been treating patients with underlying respiratory illnesses as mass wildfires rage along the West Coast and air quality reaches new lows. "If the smoke is dense enough, you might have some headaches due to carbon dioxide, and those with issues like asthma or COPD will have it worse in the moment."
Air purifier can indeed neutralize some of the threat posed by air pollution and by indoor activities. In reality, though, not all air purifiers necessarily live up to their marketing hype.
Air purifiers usually consist of a filter, or multiple filters, and a fan that sucks in and circulates air. As air moves through the filter, pollutants and particles are captured and the clean air is pushed back out into the living space. Typically, filters are made of paper, fiber (often fiberglass), or mesh, and require regular replacement to maintain efficiency.
That means, in addition to the purchase price of an air purifier, you should also factor in operating costs and filter replacement costs. Operational costs can easily amount to $50 annually, since you should be running air purifiers near constantly to garner the benefits. Filter replacements can run upwards of $100 a year all told.
How frequently you will have to change filters varies based upon the purifier type and usage. Some filters are reusable and washable, but they require meticulous maintenance, so you don't usually find them on the most effective air purifiers. Reusable filters are generally better at removing larger particles from the air, like dust mites and pollen. You'll also find UV (ultraviolet light) filters on the market, which often claim to destroy biological impurities like mold or bacteria, but many require higher wattage and greater exposure to be effective (not to mention some bacteria is UV-resistant).
Other air purifiers use ionizers to help attract particles like static — negative ions bond to dust and allergens and make them settle out of the air. If you're interested in buying desktop air purifier that uses ionizers, make sure it does not produce ozone, a gas made up of three oxygen atoms that is often marketed as helping break down pollutants, because ozone could be a lung irritant and further aggravate asthma conditions. Usually the air purifiers with ozone will have that listed on packaging or in the marketing descriptions.
Most filters on the market are designed to capture particles like dust and pollen, but don’t catch gases like VOCs (volatile organic compounds) or radon. That would require an adsorbent, like activated carbon. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns that the functionality of air purifiers is limited in terms of filtering out gases, and that you must frequently replace filters for optimal functionality, usually about every three or so months.
Many air purifiers are good at filtering pollutant particles out of the air (dust, smoke, pollen, etc.), but they are not necessarily very good at removing gaseous pollutants like VOCs or radon from the air that may accumulate from adhesives, paints, or cleaning products. Allergens that are embedded into furniture or flooring are also not captured by them.
Additionally, the effectiveness of air purifiers in real-world situations likely won’t mimic those of controlled conditions in a lab (what those "99% effectiveness" claims are referring to!). The location, installation, flow rate, and how long it is operating for will all vary, as will the conditions in the space. In addition, there are other things happening in your home that may effect the efficacy like ventilation (open or closed windows), and new particles are constantly emerging, so the air may not as filtered as the claims may have you believe.
Sometimes, non-organic air pollutants — like the VOCs we mentioned previously — can originate from outside your home. "There are all sorts of scenarios in structure fires where large doses of smoke inhalation may lead to cyanide toxicity. But that would largely need to be someone who was standing directly in or near the fire: Those people are brought to emergency rooms immediately," Dr. Roten explains. "Generally, outside pollution or smoke or temporary bad air isn't a constant concern for bystanders."
But the right kind of purifier can address any environmental air qualities in your locale. Using nearby wildfires as an example, Dr. Roten adds that a HEPA filter-equipped purifier is your best bet: "Anything that has a true HEPA filter in it is probably adequate enough to filter out most all the large particles that would be concerning," he says. "Most of the smoky smell will also be addressed as well."
Before you do, know that air purifiers are not a cure-all. There is very little medical evidence to support that air purifiers directly help improve your health or alleviate allergies and respiratory symptoms. That’s due in part to the fact that it is very difficult to separate the effects of known air-quality pollutants in your home from other environmental and genetic factors. (For instance, how are the furnishings and ventilation in your home affecting you in addition to any indoor pollutants?) But if you are an allergy or asthma sufferer, an air purifier with a HEPA filter may be helpful for you as it will be good at removing fine airborne particles.
HEPA is an acronym for High Efficiency Particulate Air. HEPA filters capture variously sized particles within a multi-layered netting usually made out of very fine fiberglass threads (much thinner than the size of a human hair strand!) with varying sized gaps. The filter is airtight, and comprised of a dense sheet of small fibers pleated and sealed in a metal or plastic frame.
The air purifier's fan draws air into the filter and particulates are captured in the filter. The larger particles (ones bigger than the fibers) are captured via impaction (particle crashes into the fiber), mid-sized particles are captured by interception (particle touches the fiber and is captured), and ultra-fine particles are captured by diffusion (while zig-zagging the particle will eventually hit and stick to the fiber).
CADR (clean-air delivery rate) rating. This measures the cleaning speed of the purifier for removing smoke, dust, and and