Pollution a killer: Air purifier a good option, but arm yourself with these power 4 points

As pollution spiked in Delhi, it sparked a political blame-game. On the one hand, people are struggling to take a breath and facing problems like allergy, breathlessness, low visibility due to smog, on other political parties are busy in brinkmanship. In this scenario, many residents have opted for air purifiers for their homes and cars. Though it’s a good and appreciable step but before investing in such a product you need to know this:

HEPA filters
HEPA or High-Efficiency Particulate Arrestance filters is must watch for while purchasing an air purifiers, thought all modern air purifiers feature this but you need to be conscious at your hand.
These filters are generally rated on the strength of how effciently they trap particles and they can trap some as small as 0.3 microns – for perspective, the thickness of a strand of human hair is about 50-150 microns. Therefore, any air purifier with a HEPA filter should be able to block out both PM 2.5 (particles that are 2.5-10 microns in diameter) and PM 10 (10 microns or more in diameter) particulates.

Dimension
For the effective work and cleanest air, you need to choose a right size air purifier that very much depends on the size of your room. Most manufacturers say what size of the room their purifiers would be effective for, but a thumb rule is to buy one bigger than the rated room size. So, for a room that is 300 sq feet in size, it is best to purchase an air purifier that can handle at least 400 sq ft. Also, because the extraordinary density.

How much effective is your device
Polluted or contaminated air usually contains three major particles: Smoke, Dust and Pollen, both vary in size, so, while purchasing an air purifier you need to choose the right one. It depends on Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR), that denotes how much air can be purified of all its particles, expressed in cubic feet per minute. When purchasing an air purifier, insist on getting all three numbers, given that smoke particles measure 0.09-1 micron, and are the hardest to filter out effectively.

Pollution masks
Pollution masks are also an effective way to save yourself from pollution but most masks or surgical masks available in the market are useless.Most pollution masks with a N99 rating (filtering 99 percent of particulate matter) will filter out dust particles, but will not do anything about the fumes.
Since desperate times — such as those prevalent in Delhi these days — call for desperate measures, a 3M face mask, paired with a P95 filter and an organic vapour cartridge, is an effective solution. This combination allows even chronic asthmatics to move around outdoors without problems.