Wildfires bring danger to many parts of the United States each year. However, you do not need to live in the immediate area of a wildfire to feel the adverse effects they bring. Even if you are hundreds of miles away, your air quality may still be at risk. This is because wind can carry smoke for miles beyond where the fire occurred.
If your air has been contaminated by the smoke clouds wildfires give off, air purifiers can help keep you and your family safe from toxic exposure to the pollutants within the smoke.
What Are the Effects of Wildfire Smoke?
Wildfire smoke is dangerous for a plethora of reasons. Not only can it ruin your plans, but poor air quality can be detrimental to your future happiness as well. You may not think of your air quality as something to be cautious about, but it is more serious than you think. Here are just some of the effects wildfire smoke may have on you:
- Irritated eyes
- Runny nose
- Sore throat
- Respiratory system issues
- Trouble breathing
- Chest pains
Young children, the elderly, and anyone with existing conditions like asthma or cardiovascular disease are at a greater risk of harm from the particles carried in wildfire smoke. They may endure worse symptoms than healthy adults and older children.
What Makes Wildfire Smoke Harmful?
The smoke from a wildfire can contain harmful particles combined with clean air to pollute it. These pollutants come from not only burnt trees and vegetation but materials such as metal and plastic particles. The danger of this debris in the air is that the particles are tiny enough to be ingested without even being seen. The intake of these particles can lead to serious health issues down the road. More ozone levels are also produced from wildfire smoke.
Ozone is a toxic gas produced in the stratosphere and troposphere of Earth. Ozone is made naturally but also man-made. Ozone has positive and negative effects on how we live on Earth based on where it is produced in the atmosphere.
Testing an Air Purifier For Effectiveness?
When you buy an air purifier, you can be assured that it will withstand whatever you throw at it, as long as you pick one rated for the size room you want to be cleaned. An air purifier is tested to ensure it will function appropriately under challenging conditions. An air purifier will be tested on its maximum settings. Doing so guarantees that it will work as expected.
In a controlled environment, dust, pollen, and other particles are mixed in with clean. The atmosphere is purposely given pollutants, which are removed by the desired purification method. As the contaminated air is run through the cleaner, the time it takes to purify the air being passed through it is documented. Each air purifier is then given a score based on the time it takes to clear the area of the particles.
How Can Air Purifiers Help?
An air purifier will help filter out particles from the air you breathe. These particles from wildfire smoke are microscopic sometimes, so small that your respiratory tract may need assistance filtering out these particles independently. Air purifiers are a great way to eliminate many of these particles.
A certified HEPA air filter can capture over 99.9% of microscopic air particles up to 0.3 microns that pass through them. This will typically catch most particles in the air since wildfire smoke particles are not usually larger than 2.5 microns. These particles are generally within 0.4 to 0.7 microns in diameter.
Some HEPA filters are designed to trap even smaller particles. These filters are rated to remove most particles from the air as it filters through the purifier. Dust and allergens from dust mites or even pollen could cause more issues for a person’s respiratory system, so removing those is crucial and leads to healthier air being circulated.
Be sure to purchase an air purifier capable of purifying the size room you need to neutralize. An air purifier that is too small will not clean the air in the space efficiently. To maximize results, you should run the air purifier continuously to remove as many particles as possible.
Final Thoughts
You should not have to sacrifice quality of living because of poor air quality. Smoke from a wildfire that is not happening in your area should not be a factor that you need to worry about. Act now and bring peace of mind back into your life. At Filterking, we have all the best filters for you to accomplish your purifying needs.
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