Question: What portable indoor air cleaner should I buy to remove air pollution from inside my home? I want to use the air cleaners to reduce my wife's suffering from multiple chemical sensitivity.Response: If your wife spends most of her time at home in one or two rooms, then placing a suitable portable air cleaner near her in each room should help reduce particle levels - and thus improve your indoor air quality. If she spends time at home in many rooms or your home has an open floor plan, portable air cleaners may not be the best solution. You may want to look at other possible solutions, such as a whole house air cleaning system. [Note that whole house air cleaning systems are not a solution for everyone, as they require a central cooling or heating system.] You should be aware that air cleaners generally don't remove everything -- most don't remove bad smells or remove all potentially harmful gases from the air — be suspicious of such claims.Portable air cleaners are the most common type of air cleaner.

They are small and plug into the wall much like a counter-top kitchen appliance or a portable heater. There are many brands and models of portable air cleaners to chose from. In choosing the best portable air cleaner for you, you should consider the following three factors: Efficiency. Most portable air cleaners use a filter to remove dust and other particles from air that is moved through the filter by a fan. The efficiency of the filter is the fraction of particles removed by the filter. The best performing portable air cleaners have HEPA-grade efficiency, meaning that they remove at least 99.97% of 0.3 micron particles from the air that passes through them.Clean Air Delivery Rate. The performance of portable air cleaners is typically determined by its "Clean Air Delivery Rate" or CADR. Conceptually, CADR is the amount of clean air delivered each minute by the air cleaner. In practice, CADR can be calculated from the airflow rate of the fan and the filter efficiency. For example, a portable air cleaner with a flow rate of 200 cubic feet per minute (cfm) and a 50% efficient filter would have a CADR of 100 cfm.

CADRs can usually be found on the box of the air cleaner. Notably, portable air cleaners without fans, such as many ionic type models, do not have a CADR rating because they do not have a fan to deliver air through the filter. air duct cleaning grimes iaAs a result, models without fans are generally ineffective (e.g., are a waste of money) because they don't clean enough air to make a difference in your air quality.spi air purifierPortable air cleaners work best inside an enclosed space, for example a bedroom with closed doors and windows. clean air carpool stickerThe best air cleaner for your home will have a CADR equal to the square footage of the room that you want to clean. An air cleaner with a substantially larger CADR may be too noisy and create too many drafts.

On the other hand, an air cleaner with CADR much smaller than the area of your room will not clean the air fast enough for your room size. In this case, you could purchase several portable air cleaners which together have a large enough CADR to clean the same large room. This solution may be sufficient for your needs, although testing has shown this solution to be relatively inefficient.On a more personal note, I would stay away from ionic or electronic air cleaners that produce measureable amounts of ozone, a pollutant that has been shown to be harmful to health. Look for test results from companies making ionic or electronic air cleaners to make sure that the air cleaner does not produce measureable amounts of ozone (say over a couple parts per billion or ppb) in your living space. Some ionic or electronic air cleaners will include a scrubber to remove the ozone. I would still be wary of these air cleaners, as it is possible that faulty operation, installation, or maintenance will result in the build up of harmful levels of ozone inside your house.

Since there are many available air cleaners that don't produce ozone, I don't see a reason to choose a model that may pollute your air.Previous Ask Treehugger columns can be found here.Helen Suh MacIntosh is a professor in environmental health at Harvard University and studies how pollution behaves in the environment and how it affects people's health. Please keep in mind that her answers are just her interpretation of available information and should not be taken as the only viewpoint or solution to a problem. Use this column at your own risk. Having said this, please feel free to post any of your environmental health questions to AskTreeHugger [[@]] TreeHugger [[.]] com (please use a descriptive email subject line and mention if you want to remain anonymous or not).E.L. Foust Air Purifiers E.L. Foust Air Purifiers are the air purifiers of choice of allergists, environmental doctors as well as MCS, asthma and allergyTheir home and auto air purifiers feature clean, allThe units use no adhesives, even on their

HEPA filters, and contain very large beds of carbon to quickly and effectively remove airborne contaminants. These air purifiers were specifically manufactured for people with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), severe allergies andThey are designed to remove chemicals, fumes, odors, and particles down to 0.1 microns in size. The units perform very well in independent lab tests, and are used and recommended by allergists and environmental doctors nationwide. They are wonderful for use in your home, office, school, car, or any other place you need clean air. Foust has offered a recycling program for the 160 Series air purifiers in the continental USA since 1974. The carbon media can be disposed of in your regular trash, unless it contains mercury vapor media. View cartridge replacement video. 1974 E.L. Foust Company has been manufacturing air purifiers designed for people with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), environmental illness, allergies and asthma for use in home, office, school,

even automobiles and RVs! Their air purifiers utilize proven technology, such as large beds of activated carbon, state-of-the-art HEPA filters, and optional UV lights to remove dusts, mold, pollens, allergens, viruses, bacteria, and chemicals from the air you breathe. Claims and Test Results The E.L. Foust Co. responded promptly to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine’s concern for scientific validation of claims of effectiveness on the part of air purifier manufacturers who serve the environmentally ill. The chart below highlights findings of independent tests on Foust Air Purifiers. Method and results of the tests Using various lengths of stain or color change indicator tubes, the removal of various pollutants by Foust Filters was studied. All studies were done by polluting a well-sealed room 10’ x 12’ x 8’ (about 1000 cubic feet) in size, and then measuring the concentration of the pollutant within the room by inserting the end of a sampling

tube through a small hole in the wall of the room in a manner which would not cause any changes in the concentration of theThe concentration of each pollutant was measured at various time intervals during the period that the filter underRemoval of pollutants by the Foust Filters was very effective. All pollutants were removed within Removal of various pollutants is shown in the tables above. which were studied include formaldehyde, phenol, ozone, hexane, All E. L. Foust Company products are covered by an one year limited warranty on materials and workmanship. E. L. Foust Company carefully inspects all productsIf there is damage it has probably been caused by the delivery company, so we must be notified of damages within 4 days of receiving the item. If not notified within this period we will not be able to send replacement products at no charge. If for any reason the original customer is not satisfied with the product, we must be notified within 28 days