Air Purifier Controversy by Jason Uvios

Although the sales of air purifiers are on a steady rise, it seems the air purifier industry can’t wash its hands off controversy. One after another keeps cropping up.

That the demand for air purifiers has been increasing is understandable. As more and more studies indicate that the air inside our homes is really not fit to be breathed in, the demand of air purifiers has risen. There is hardly any controversy as far as acknowledging the fact that indoor air is a threat. But the controversy is elsewhere.

The dissenters have raised quite a few points and there seems to be merit in their argument. Let us deal with each contention separately.

Contention 1: Air Purifiers Never Actually Purify the Air

There are some who claim air purifiers hardly deliver when it comes to purifying the air. What they mean to say that even after using one of those devices, there ill be a lot of pollutants still in the air of the room. This depends largely on the kind of purifier you are using. If it is a basic model, then there can be a whole lot of particulates that wouldn’t be trapped by the purifier. Suppose the purifier has only HEPA filters, then you can’t expect it to be effective against viruses or smoke.

But with the latest, sophisticated purifiers you can achieve seriously good results. The cleansing can be more than 99% effective and the air that you finally breathe in will be to a large extent pure and beneficial for your health.

So although not all purifiers deliver what they claim, the better ones actually do.

Contention 2: Ionizing Air Purifiers Emit Ozone

There is some meat to this argument as recent studies do indicate that the ionizing air purifiers actually emit small amounts of ozone. Now ozone, although made of three atoms of oxygen is completely different from the real oxygen. In fact, it is toxic if we breathe it in. the third atom in Ozone is a free radical and can readily combine with any organic substance. If we breathe in ozone this free radical combines with the organic substances in our body and can seriously damage our lungs.

The emission of ozone from the ionizing air purifiers is minimal, but over a period of time it can prove to be harmful. Research is still on to find out the exact extent of effect this can have on our health.