Interest in air filters and purifiers is spiking in Southern California, including questions about how to build a homemade air purifier. Getting clean air is the latest challenge for residents who evacuated to safe areas, only to be forced to endure unhealthy smoky air.
On Friday, a large area in and around Los Angeles was listed as having unhealthy air due to particulate matter from large wildfires that devastated communities this week, according to the federal AirNow air quality monitor.
On AirNow’ map, a “red zone” (signaling air quality index values from 151 to 200) stretched from Inglewood in the northwest to Long Beach and Sunset Beach in the southeast.
In the “unhealthy” range of 151 to 200, some people may experience health effects and members of sensitive groups — children and older adults or those with heart or lung disease — “may experience more serious health effects,” the Environmental Protection Agency says.
A big worry, experts say, is fine inhalable particulate matter known as PM 2.5 (for 2.5 microns) that can lodge deep into our lungs.
And as researchers at the University of Washington note, “Smaller ultrafine particles (PM 0.1) can pass into the bloodstream and organs, including the brain.”
Here’s a quick guide to getting cleaner air:
Search filters by their MERV rating
Filters are key, whether you’re using them to upgrade your home’s HVAC system or put them in an air purifier or a DIY air cleaner. A filter’s ability to pull particulates and other matter out of the air are rated by Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values, or MERV. Filters with higher values can catch smaller contaminants like smoke, bacteria…
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