Employing air purifiers for the
relief of allergies is just one aspect of getting ready for a new season. The
coming of spring is often a mixed blessing to the vast numbers of Americans who
suffer from allergies. We're glad that the hard, cold days of winter are over,
but have little enthusiasm for the coming months of sneezing, wheezing, and
difficulty breathing. Most people procrastinate about preparing for the season
so that it hits them with a vengeance and only then do they remember. If you had
allergies last year, there's a pretty good chance you will this year as well.
Using air purifiers alone will help but a more holistic approach will help even
more with your allergies. WHile air purifiers can help while you are in your
home you must be prepared to face the
pollen and pollution outside.
The following are tips on preparing your life, your home, and your work
environment for allergy season. It is especially important not to procrastinate
if you have children with allergies. Children have a tough time as it is
concentrating in school when the weather gets nice outside. When you add the
difficulties from allergy symptoms, and the medications that may need to be
taken, it can be especially hard for them to do good work in school.
Get started right away, even if there is snow on the ground. Make an appointment
with your doctor or allergist. Evaluate the efficacy of the medicines you took
last allergy season and with your doctor, plan a strategy for this season. Get
your written Allergy Plan together. Many insurance companies (such as Anthem)
provide calendars with month to month tips on addressing these problems. Get
your insurance provider and your doctor to send you everything they have. A
phone call is easy to make. It's especially important that you understand your
doctor's strategy for long term control and for quick relief. They may be
different medications. Review the filter life of your air purifiers and if need
be change them.
If you are planning spring or summer vacations, get on the internet and check
out the weather and pollen conditions for the places you are intending to visit
at www.weather.com . Integrate these into
your Action Plan. Don't let an attack ruin your vacation, simply because you
forgot to plan for it and to take the appropriate medications with you.
Be ready by the first day of spring. Get into gear and get your home into shape
as an oasis for breathing. There was a good reason people did major spring
cleaning in the olden days. During the closed-up winter days, the home becomes
heavy laden with dust and dirt, dust mites in all those warm, wooly clothes and
bedding, pet danders and allergens, smoke, soot, and ash from fireplaces and
woodstoves, mold from closed up spaces, chemicals from all the grooming and
cleaning products used, and viruses and germs to boot. Get your home,
furnishings, bedding, carpets, upholstery, and clothes cleaned up. Do the same
with your office if at all possible.
Most importantly, if you smoke, STOP! If you work around smokers, throw a fit
and make them stop doing it around you. Second hand smoke is poison to allergy
sufferers, and horrible for babies and children.
Once you've cleaned up your act, keep it clean with
room air purifiers in key
areas of your house. The bedroom is undoubtedly a key area. Many allergy
sufferers experience attacks in the middle of the night, because the human
respiratory system relaxes during sleep. Things you can handle during the day,
will be more traumatic at night. You'll want to keep a good room air purifier
running in your bedroom 24 hours a day with the door closed if at all possible.
You want to sleep in the cleanest room possible. It will help you survive the
daytime.
Decide where else in the house you or your family spends a majority of time, and
select a room air purifier large enough to adequately cover that space. If you
do lots of cooking or grilling on an indoor grill, you may want an air purifier
for your kitchen that can absorb chemicals.
With the plethora of allergy
air purifiers on the market, which one do you
choose? It helps to know specifically what you're allergic to. However, if
you're not sure, but just know that you can't breathe easily during certain
parts of the year, the vast majority of allergy doctors recommend
HEPA allergy
air purifiers. HEPA filters were developed by NASA years ago for use in the
space shuttle. HEPA means High Energy Particulate Arresting. That means it sucks
up the pollens and stuff flying around in the air. Many companies sell HEPA air
purifiers, some much better in quality than others. The best have 5-10 year
warranties on the machines themselves. HEPA filters have to be changed. When you
throw one out you'll be amazed at how despicable they are and you'll be very
glad you didn't breathe all that stuff.
Other types of allergy air purifiers use ionization or electro-static technology
to absorb the particulate. These can be very helpful, but HEPA is still the best
way to go to get the vast majority of pollutants and toxins out of your air.
Stay away from air purifiers based on ozone generation technology. Consumer
Reports says "ozone generators should not be where people are." Grammatically
incorrect, but still a good warning. It means they are fine for industry, but
not for people.
It is also enormously helpful if air purifiers you choose have enough activated
carbon or other media to absorb gases and odors. Volatile organic compounds (VOC's),
paint fumes, formaldehyde outgassing, ozone, and other such unpleasantries can
be absorbed in addition to the particulates such as pollen.
Purchase enough good quality air purifiers to clean your home and mark your
calendar so that you change the filters when they need to be changed. Some air
purifiers indicate when a filter needs to be changed and some don't. It really
doesn't matter. You can easily mark your calendar with the manufacturer's
recommendations, and simply change the filters when it's time.
It's also helpful to get the filters in your air conditioning system changed
before allergy season starts. If you don't know where to get the filters, simply
get the manufacturer's name off of the system and call them up. They'll either
carry the filters themselves or let you know where to purchase them. Many
systems have electro-static filters which can help keep the dust down. However,
they don't absorb all the pollens and other pollutants so you still need room
air purifiers in key areas of your house.
Just because you have allergies, don't banish yourself from the beautiful
outdoors entirely. However, remaining indoors between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and
10:00 a.m. are a good idea, because that's when pollen is usually emitted. Stay
inside on very windy days too. Wash your hair and clothing when you've spent a
lot of time outdoors, and wear a mask to mow the lawn. Or better yet, pay some
teenager who is desperate for spending money to do it.
In summary, if you start today and don't procrastinate you can face allergy
season without cowering, pick solid allergy air purifiers, be careful as we
suggested above and you will minimize your symptoms.
Ted Zajac, Jr.
MSE Johns Hopkins University
