Improve Air Quality with Air Purifiers

When was the last time you thought about the air quality you’re breathing in throughout the day? The average person takes over 20,000 breaths a day. That’s a lot of breaths, especially if you’re breathing in contaminated air from mold, mildew, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), and bacteria. Each breath you take can move you closer to health or farther from it. Air purifiers can make a noticeable difference when you’re living or working in a space with mold. And if you’re drawing a blank on the symptoms of mold exposure and why you’d want to reduce the amount of mold you’re breathing in, visit this post to educate yourself or review.

There are a lot of air purifiers out there that claim to do a lot of things. From the research I’ve done, it is most helpful to search for an air purifier that filtrates, purifies, and sanitizes the air. These air purifiers tend to be more expensive, but in this case, you definitely get what you pay for, and when your health is at stake, it’s a worthy investment in yourself.

Filtration

Mold releases spores and mycotoxins like a dandelion, scattering big and small parts throughout the air without a care, except it’s all smaller than the human eye can detect. Filters can improve air quality by grabing contaminants and holding on to them, which eventually get disposed of when the filter is thrown away.

In terms of filtration, look for something that filters smaller than a HEPA filter since mycotoxins released from mold are around 0.1 microns. To give you an idea of how small this is, our lungs filter out particles down to 0.1 microns. Think of it as needing a filter that will pick up where your lungs leave off. HEPA filters remove particles down to 0.3 microns, but there are filters that can remove particulates at 0.003 microns, which is significantly smaller than a traditional HEPA filter, like this Intellipure Ultrafine filter.

Purification

As for purification, look for a purifier that can eliminate biological contaminants, like mold spores and bacteria. This is a process I know very little about, but from what I understand, bipolar photocatalytic oxidation uses ions that are charged in a way where they act as a magnet for contaminants, collecting them and eradicating them. While that sounds pretty cool, I understand it best in this simple for: using a UV light to decontaminate the air. Reducing actinobacteria in your home through purification can definitely improve your air quality.

Sanitization

Sanitization is an interesting process. Ions are used to attach to contaminants that are ultra fine in order to weigh them down and allow the filter to be able to catch them and remove them from the air. Many purifiers that purify also sanitize. A lot of the purifiers you can purchase at any big name retailer focus primarily on filtering, however, and not purification or sanitization, but all three elements can be really helpful when you’re in an environment that’s making you sick or has the potential to undermine your health.

Finding a High Quality Purifier

Mold Air Purifiers has a super helpful website that offers recommendations for high quality air purifiers as well as explanations of how they work and why. The website comes highly recommended by Michael Rubino, one of my favorite people to learn about healthy air quality from. Purchasing one of these filters is definitely an investment, and maybe one that you’d like to hold of making until you’re safely out of the mold.

Making the Best Choice for Right Now

If you know your stay in the mold is going to be short-term, it’s also totally okay to purchase a lesser quality air purifier, like Germ Guardian or Levoit. These are better than nothing in terms of working to support improved air quality, and it’s a little easier to swallow having to throw one of these away when you move instead of a more expensive purifier.

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