Share on PinterestExperts say opening windows and using fans may be a cheaper alternative to air purifiers. Getty Images
- Experts say air purifiers may not be that effective at preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus in places such as classrooms and offices.
- They say safety precautions such as mask wearing and physical distancing are the best prevention measures.
- They add that opening windows and using fans can be a cheaper alternative.
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As the number of COVID-19 cases remains manageable in most of the United States, people are looking to get back indoors, whether that’s returning to the office after more than a year of remote work or sending the kids back to school for in-person instruction.
But people want those areas to be as safe and clean as possible, especially the air they’ll be breathing for hours on end.
There are numerous air purifiers on the market that claim to help clean the air of the novel coronavirus, often using technology that sounds like it would be able to take down any microbe.
Many lack real-world specific scientific rigor to back up their marketing claims and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says they’re most likely inadequate against the coronavirus.
“By itself, air cleaning or filtration is not enough to protect people from COVID-19,” the EPA says on its website.
However, that’s not stopping people from seeking costly solutions rather than continuing to follow low-cost preventive measures.
Kaiser Health News recently dug into the frenzy of schools buying air purifiers that boast using technology such as ionization, plasma, and dry hydrogen peroxide, which the Lancet COVID-19 Commission said is “often unproven” and can actually pollute the air.
The Kaiser Health News investigation found that these products can lull students, teachers, and staff in those schools into a sense of false security. This comes as contractors look to make money following a flood of federal grants to improve schools’ air supply systems in response to returning to in-person instruction.
Public health experts note that the novel coronavirus transmits best when people gather indoors without masking or physical distancing for 15 minutes or more at a time.
Filtration systems are important in places where people sit in recirculated air for sometimes hours at a time, such as on an airplane, but experts are saying they’re not the next phase of COVID-19 prevention.
“Certainly, the air purification systems on commercial airplanes are helpful in reducing the spread of COVID-19, but it is unlikely you would purchase such a sophisticated system for your home, school, or office,” said Dr. David Cutler, a family medicine physician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
Experts say that simple interventions with minimal investment can make for much less costly solutions to increase airflow in buildings.
“Just open windows,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for …….