Breathe In, Breathe Easy

With the news headlines warning everyone of the perils of the hazardous air quality and suggesting to remain indoors, here’s Barun Aggarwal of BreatheEasy Consultants opening our eyes with some reality check!

- Barun Aggarwal

Before we start on how to choose the right air purifier, let us examine the main pollutants that we must deal with in our living spaces…

• Particulate Matter (PM2.5) – very small particles in the air that are invisible that go deep into our lungs and sometimes into our bloodstream and cause harm to the entire human body; A class 1 carcinogen as per WHO; The smaller the particle, the more harmful it is.

• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) – a gas that is all around us, but in closed indoor spaces, the concentration tends to go well above the recommended safe limits; Has an impact on health and productivity.

• Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC’s) – Over 1200 VOC’s around us and some of them can be carcinogenic; They are emitted from sources inside our homes – paint, furniture, cleaning liquids, deodorant, mosquito repellant, etc; Start with source control and then look at ways to reduce/eliminate this pollutant from the indoors.

All three of the above pollutants are harmful to human health in some way or another. There are other pollutants like NOx, SOx, H2S, O3, etc that may be found outdoors. And if there is a problem with any of these gases, in the outdoor environment close to your living space, then, you need to call in the heavy artillery to fix the problem – you don’t want any of these indoors.

Now, we start our quest to find an air purifier that can eliminate the three most commonly found pollutants. At a high level, there are two kinds of air purifiers – active filtration and passive filtration. Active filtration is a newer technology, is less effective, especially over a period of time and can sometimes be harmful as it emits Ozone as a by-product. Passive filtration is tried and tested technology that blocks pollutants from going through, thereby cleaning the air that passes through the passive filter.