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7 Reasons You May Need An Air Purifier

When I bought my first air purifier back in the late 1990's, I was immediately impressed. Within an hour, my apartment had taken on the aroma of a mountaintop in the Swiss Alps.

Except for travel, I have not been without an one since.

According to the Environmental Proctection Agency, household air pollution is a serious and potentially dangerous problem. Every home contains some kind of air pollutant, whether it be toxic fumes from new carpeting, the chemicals in air fresheners, or simply the dust in the air.

If you live in a warm climate, your health could be at even higher risk than residents of more temperate areas. When heat and humidity rise, certain pollutants become more concentrated in the air, multiplying whatever ill effects they may already be causing.

Signs that your home may need an air purifier

The air is stale and/or stuffy. If your home constantly smells not-quite-right, or you feel like breathing is a chore, your indoor air quality has been seriously compromised.
Mold or mildew is present. Commonly a bathroom issue, mold can also be present in other rooms, causing allergies and colds.
You feel healthier outside of the home. I was able to last longer in the afternoons once I started using an air purifier. Something in the apartment air had apparently been zapping my energy.
You live in a city or suburb. Let's face it, what's outside comes in. The dirty air from cars, leaf blowers, factories, etc., eventually seep through cracks in windows and doors. If you live anywhere but the country or a small town, chances are, if you don't have a high-quality air purifier, your house has been inundated with outdoor air pollution.

7 reasons to get an air purifier

1. You have one or more children. Young children's bodies, smaller and not fully developed, are not able to handle toxins as well as adult bodies. Not only does that make them more susceptible to air-borne illnesses, but also some air pollutants can interfere with their physiological development.

2. The particulates in the air--whether from smoke (cigarette or fire), dust, or pollen contribute to and aggravate allergies and respiratory illnesses. Shortly after buying a purifier for myself, I bought one for my classroom. A few years later, the roof of the school was repaired. Day after day for over a week this horrid little tar-making machine sat just outside our classroom window.

The smell and smoke became so unbearable for my neighbor and her students that she held class in the library--at the other end of the building--for the week.

My students and I could barely smell the fumes in our room, thanks to the little box on top of a cabinet in a corner of my classroom.

3. Many household products produce toxic fumes. Air fresheners (ironically), aerosol sprays, paints, fabric additives in carpets and furniture upholstery--all have been linked to liver, kidney and central nervous system damage, as well as cancer.

A good air purifier will eliminate those fumes. Not many years after deciding our school needed reroofing, the powers that were decided to have the school building repainted--in the middle of the school year (no, they did not use nontoxic paint!).

That year, students absences skyrocketed--except in my classroom. My classroom, the only one in the entire building with relatively clean air.

4. You want a pet, but suffer from allergies from the dander. Allergy calico cat

symptoms caused by dust mites and pet dander disappear with the nonstop use of a purifer.

5. Unless you have a brand-new, fiberglass-free home, it probably has at least trace amounts of asbestos. An air purifier will keep the cancerous material out of the air so that you don't breathe it.

6. You want your health to improve a notch or two. During my years teaching, summer workshops were held at old and badly ventilated middle and high schools. I would often go home with a headache, sometimes even feeling like I was coming down with the flu.

Then I got smart and started bringing my little box with me and setting it up in whatever classroom I would be stuck in all day. My "teacher workshop blahs" miraculously disappeared.

7. It costs only pennies a day in energy. Even when you run it 24/7--which you should, for maximum protection from indoor air pollutants--it uses very little electricity and barely puts a dent in your utility bill.

When you make the decision to invest in an air purifier, you have many options. By far, the best air purifiers are sold online. For the past several years, I've been using an Airwise air purifier. I absolutely love it! When we are having one of those ozone alert days here in the Dallas area, I don't even know it until I go outside, where the air will have a stale, even stinky aroma to it.

But my Airwise does an excellent job of running air pollutants down to the ground before they even get to my nostrils.

May I coach you? To invest in an air purifier is to invest in your health, and possibly add years to your life. Make sure you choose the best.

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