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Cleaner air for you
article by Clarisa Marcee “THERE’S A WIDELY quoted statement by the EPA that the air inside our homes is 5 to 10 times more polluted than outdoor air. The reason for that is that we not only get matter from outside the home into our houses, but we also have a lot of things in our house that are putting off pollutants — paints, solvents, insecticides, furniture, carpeting ... all giving off particulate matter and perhaps also what are called volatile organic contaminants (VOCs) or the odors and the gasses from those items,” explains Stevan Brown, co-owner of Allergy Air and More, based in Fort Worth, Texas. “For these reasons, it is important to have an air purifying system in your home or workplace, particularly if you have allergies, asthma, or other respiratory difficulties.” Although our bodies have their own filtering systems, Brown explains that the smaller a particle is that we inhale, the more deeply it can penetrate into our lungs. He says that it’s the tiniest particles that tend to give us the most problems. “Air purification does a good job of reducing the amount of VOCs that we breathe during the day if the machine is designed to do that,” says Brown. “It also does a good job of reducing the particulate matter that we breathe, again, if it’s a machine that is designed to do that.” With there being so many choices in air purifying systems on the market, it can be tough trying to decide which one is best for you. You have to consider efficiency, cost, and how much space you need to filter. There are several types of systems: ionizers or ionic air purifiers; HEPA [high efficiency particulate air] air filters; ultra-violet (UV) air purifiers; electrostatic air purifiers; electronic air purifiers; and ozone air purifiers. Ozone air purifiers: “Ozone is neither safe nor effective even at low levels,” explains Brown. “In over 100 years of research on ozone, it has never been shown that low levels of ozone removed anything from the environment. For example, if you introduce formaldehyde into a room with low levels of ozone, you get two interesting effects — the level of formaldehyde increases, they are not sure why, but even more significantly is that four, five, or six different aldehydes will form which are more caustic than the original formaldehyde. But in general, low levels of ozone will not eliminate anything from the environment. The Federal Trade Commission sued the largest manufacturer of ozone generators, Alpine, several years ago. “If it was just that ozone was ineffective, that would be one thing, but there is another consequence to ozone at low levels. A lot of times you’ll see advertisements that say a machine produces less ozone than the safe level of government-mandated ozone of x-amount — there are no safe levels. The government does have a maximum level of ozone that a worker can be exposed to during a work period, but I equate that to the same as an individual working in a nuclear power plant. There’s a maximum exposure that he can receive of radiation. The government is not saying that that’s safe; they’re just saying that a worker can’t exceed that amount. What ozone does do is mask odors.” Brown notes that studies have shown that low levels of ozone can trigger asthma and is thought to exacerbate chronic lung disease. He says that the American Lung Association has done animal studies on low levels of ozone and |
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