Just How Dust in Your Home Impacts You How Air Purifiers Could Help

Statistics tell us that dust kills up to 50,000 US citizens each year. You may expect that this would be due to lung and chest disease, however other diseases such as heart disease and eventual heart attacks are a major cause of death due to dust. While we can see many of the larger particles – the ones you can easily sweep up with a vacuum cleaner or the ones you can see floating around in the middle of a light beam, the most dangerous particles to your heart are the invisible ones, the ones which are so tiny you can’t see them at all. 

The dust in your home often contains fiber particles from fibers, skin, pet skin, as well as pet hair, fur, feathers, saliva, droppings and urine. It also includes particles from food, pollen, and dust mites. Actually, your home is full of dust and it gets stirred up each time you vacuum, clean, dust, cook or move about your home. Unfortunately once the dust is in the air it can also pick up air-borne chemicals such as acidic aerosols and toxic chemicals and metals. If you then inhale these particles these chemicals – especially the aerosols can dissolve into your blood and lead to lots of health issues including, but not limited to your respiratory system.  In short these substances basically piggy back their way into your body on dust to poison you. 

Just as different particles vary in size, they also vary in the kind of effects they have on you.  The largest dust particles which tend to range from 5-10 microns in size are usually deposited in your nasal cavities and cause congestion, inflammation and sometimes lead to ulcers in this area. 

Next, we have particles in the 3-5 micron range. These particles tend to get into your lungs and can lead to bronchial congestion, bronchitis and other chest infections. However, there are other even smaller particles. These ones can penetrate your lungs farther and even enter your blood stream. Once there, they can affect the ability of your heart to regulate its rhythm in response to changes in demand such as when you are exercising. This can easily trigger the risk of having a heart attack. 

Click here to read more or to see some of the great air purifiers in action click top rated air cleansing units.

Buying an Air Purifier For Your Home

Things to Know Before You Buy an Air Purifier?

First of all, not everyone needs and air purifier. However, the facts are that in our heavily industrialized and very crowded world, the air is becoming more and more polluted. While its true that most countries are making an effort to curb pollutants emitted by vehicles and factories for example, the issue is becoming more serious. This is mainly because as more and more countries become industrialized and population (and wealth) increases, more and more products are being used and more waste is being generated than ever before in the history of mankind. 

We are also creating new products which means that there are far more allergens for us to react to. Indeed,  indoor air pollution can lead to all sorts or allergic  reactions such as Fatigue, headaches, asthma and other breathing difficulties, skin and breathing allergies, eye  nose and throat irritation as well as other conditions you may not even associate with allergies including high blood pressure, heart disease and adverse effects on your mental performance.

There is not that much you can do about external pollution (apart from applying pressure to politicians and activism) but since you probably spend at least a third of your life at home, it is important that you control the quality of air in your home. 

Changes in  home air quality

So why has your home air quality decreased over the past few decades?

There has been a lot of focus on conserving energy in tall buildings over the last 40-50 years. This has led to builders making buildings quite air tight. This is great for conserving energy but not so good for air exchange. In short these buildings tend to accumulate the chemicals they generate instead of releasing them to the general atmosphere. 

These include chemicals such as Carbon Monoxide gas and others such as radon and formaldehyde released by the synthetic or chemically treated building materials such as the carpets, walls, paint, insulation wood and flooring etc. 

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How You Could Make use of Air Purifiers to Battle Allergies from Home Pets

Home Allergies and Pets

The majority of US households love and keep pets. In fact over 60% of homes in the USA have a pet, usually a dog or a cat. Unfortunately, many people , that is about 1 in 10, are allergic to pets. This can mean that pet ownership which should bring a lot of joy can end up leading to a lot of pain and distress for those sensitive individuals. 

So what can you do? If you’ve never owned a pet you might just have to live without one. But what about when you’ve had a pet for years and its become part of the family and you suddenly develop an allergy, or your lovely new child happens to develop an allergy to the pet you’ve kept and raised for 10 years. In that case you’re going to need a different approach. Fortunately, there are things you can do to reduce the severity of your allergic reactions. Firstly, you’ll need to educate yourself about the signs and symptoms of pet allergies so you can take appropriate steps to bring relief.

So what can you do if you’re allergic to your pet? What causes or can trigger that reaction?

Most allergic reactions are caused by the response of your immune system to a foreign body, chemical or foreign substance. Some of the commonest allergens you are likely to encounter include pollen, pet hair ,pet dander, insect stings such as bee stings, and reactions to various foods and chemicals. 

Your body’s immune system normally produces proteins called antibodies which act as a natural defense from any foreign substances that can cause you sickness or infection.  If you have an allergic response, your body produces antibodies that then identify harmless and harmful substances as potentially harmful to you. Once your body comes into contact with these substances it reacts with an inflammatory response on your skin or in your nasal passages and lungs.  

Pet allergens tend to come from dead pet skin cells (dander), their saliva and their hair.  Dander is particularly dangerous if your are allergic to pets as it is tiny, hard to eliminate and can remain airborne in your home for long periods of time.  Pet allergens can also get stuck to your furniture and clothes.  The amount of saliva your pets produce varies but it tends to attach itself to carpets and clothing and once it dries up it can become airborne as well. 

Reactions to Pets

Most pet allergies are rarely dangerous, just very uncomfortable. They may however lead to extremely distressing symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny noses, itchy red or watery eyes,  mild, moderate or severe coughs. You could also have swollen nasal passages, swollen eye bags, facial pain and disturbed sleep. 

However, if you already predisposed to lung disease or infection – for example suffering from asthma, then a pet allergy can make your condition far worse, leading to shortness of breath, chest pain and wheezing, which in turn can lead to sleeping issues such as insomnia.

How You Can Use Air Purifying Technology to Alleviate Pet Allergies

One solution to your pet induced allergies is to install an Air Purifier in your home or rooms. There are many types of air purifier, but all are designed to either capture and remove particles or destroy harmful microbes. The best air purifiers use a combination of several technologies and filters including pre-filters, activated carbon filters to remove odors, HEPA or True HEPA filters to remove up to 99.97% of particles from your room. In addition there are ionizers which use negative ionic charges to attract and remove particles and air purifiers which use ultraviolet radiation to kill microbes.

Click to view some top rated air purifiers or see an air purifier in action and watch the video below for some of the best air purifiers on the market.


Which Air Purifier Should I Buy?

Top Air Purifier Features

There are a range of technologies that can be used to clean the air in your home. The best ones combine different technologies so you benefit by getting cleaner air as well as by removing a wider range of allergens or particles. There include ionizers which can kill spores such as mold which produce dangerous chemicals, charcoal filters which trap odors and particles, and HEPA and True HEPA filters which trap very tiny particles.

Ionic air purifiers and air ionizers are silent as they don’t rely on a powerful fan to draw in particles to be captured by a filter. They rely on an electrostatic charge to clean the air in your home. However, while they may kill spores and mold and mites, they do not remove tiny particles from the air, so if these are the source of your health issues they may not solve the problem. Some of them produce ozone which may kill particle producing spores but can also irritate lungs so is not recommended if you are sensitive.

HEPA Air purifiers and the more effective True HEPA air purifiers are very powerful for removing particles from the air but may be quite noisy at their highest fan settings. In addition, you will need to replace their filters occasionally and these can be expensive to buy.

In addition to these, there are also ultraviolet ray base air purifiers although generally speaking this technology is seldom used on its own but combined with other technologies. Ultraviolet rays destroy microbes and are safe to use as theyre radiation is safe and does not produce any ozone.

Ideally you should buy a combination Air Purifier that has an initial Pre-filter, a carbon filter and a true HEPA filter. You may also want to buy one that has an ionizer , ultraviolet rays or both as well as these technologies.

So Which Air Purifier Should You Buy

Finally, many modern Air purifiers come with features designed for ease of use such as low noise modes, timers, auto sensors which detect air quality and speed up to clear your air faster or slow down or stop if your air quality is good. Indeed some now come with Bluetooth features so you can control your air purifier when you are out or use your phone as a remote control device.

In conclusion, you should buy the best air purifier with all the features you actually need without being too expensive, preferably one that uses multiple technologies to remove as many different types of particles as possible. In addition, if other useful features are available at reasonable prices, you can decide which of them are most useful to you and factor them into your decision on which air purifier to buy.

For more information view our top air purifier recommendations or our best air purifier reviews.

Here are some of our top recommendations:

Winix 5300-2 Air Purifier With True HEPA and Plasmawave

GermGuardian Air Purifier

or if you’re looking for a decent discount visit best air purifier sets for some great bargains