Do Air Purifiers Work on Tobacco Smoke?

The air quality indoors can influence your family’s health and well-being, especially when there’s someone with asthma or other respiratory problems in your household.

Today’s houses are more energy-efficient and they don’t allow for much airflow. This means that the air inside your home can be more polluted than the outdoors, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. One of the most toxic air pollutants is tobacco smoke. The best air purifier for smoke will help control tobacco smoke. The humid climate in Raleigh retains smoke in the surroundings. Air purifiers are used to control this effect.

How bad is tobacco smoke?

Secondhand smoke is dangerous and causes lots of health problems, especially for children who are disclosed to it. A 2010 CDC study found that exposure to tobacco causes lung cancer in nonsmoking adults, lung cancer, respiratory infections, asthma, respiratory symptoms, sudden infant death syndrome, and decreased lung function in children.

Tobacco is made of toxic compounds like hydrogen cyanide, acetaldehyde, and many others. You need to address both the gaseous toxins and particulates to deal with the problems of tobacco smoke and remove it in the most effective way possible.

Getting rid of smoke

The two best ways to deal with the air quality problems are the same no matter what the source of the pollution is. They are opening the windows and getting rid of the source. To deal with the poor indoor air quality, removing the source of pollution is more important than just about any other solution.

It is also important to see how a technical or scientific field deals with the problem. In this field, we can turn to the smoke emitted from electrical and laser surgery. Studies found that the smoke emitted from such forms was toxic and contained infectious materials like viruses and bacteria. From extensive research, it was found that a powerful ventilation system is used to prevent the smoke from being inhaled by the doctors or nurses. The same technique is used in houses but sometimes it is raining or winter. That is when an air purifier’s role comes in.

The best air purifier for removing tobacco smoke

There are a few types of air purifiers in the market these days. Each one has different drawbacks and capabilities. The difficulty involved in removing tobacco smoke is that it comprises of two different types of pollution. They are VOCs and particulate matter.

HEPA filter air purifier

HEPA is an acronym for high-efficiency particulate air. HEPA is multi-layered netting made up of fiberglass threads with varying sized gaps that captures variously sized particles. The filter is a dense sheet of small fibers sealed in a plastic or metal frame.

Mechanical filters that use a HEPA filter have been proven to remove 99.9 percent of all particles that are 0.3 microns in diameter. Removing the particle part of the smoke is a huge part of the solution. This filter is very effective against particulate pollutants. They will remove the elements of tobacco smoke and slightly reduce the smell. The odor and harmful chemicals of tobacco smoke are so tiny and therefore pass through the HEPA filter. The only effective way is to place a carbon filter behind the HEPA filter. Check it out for more.