How to Protect Yourself Against Poor Air Quality

How to Protect Yourself Against Poor Air Quality

As Chicago residents have spent the last few months hounded by wildfire smoke, experts have a variety of recommendations on how to avoid the bad air quality, including recirculating indoor air, using HEPA filters and creating a clean room.

How Does the Air Cause Harm Indoors?

Smoke from Canadian wildfires travels thousands of miles and contains the pollutant PM2.5. This fine particulate matter is smaller than or equal to 2.5 micrometers, about 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair. PM2.5 is produced by sources such as vehicle exhaust and industry emissions as well as forest fires. Once in the deepest portions of the lungs, this particulate matter can cross into the bloodstream, disrupting blood chemistry and causing heart stoppages. Fine particulate matter has also been linked to premature births, diabetes, and dementia.

But being inside doesn’t mean you’re safe.

Fine particles from wildfire smoke can make their way indoors in many ways. Most obviously, they can travel inside through open windows and doors by natural ventilation. Another way is by mechanical ventilation through kitchen and bathroom fans that vent to the outdoors or heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems that take in fresh air.

Less noticeably, they can travel through “crevices, cracks, little tortuous routes, through the mortar joints and around windows” in a process called infiltration, said Elliott Horner, indoor air quality expert and lead scientist at Northbrook-based UL Solutions.

“If the wind is blowing wildfire smoke in the direction of your building, that upwind side of the building is probably going to have some smoke particles filtering through it,” Horner said.

To protect yourself during an air quality event, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggests creating a clean room that is comfortable to spend long periods of time in, with all windows and doors closed.

Keep the room clean by refraining from smoking cigarettes, using gas, propane or wood-burning stoves, spraying aerosol products, frying food, and burning candles or incense. Seal the room by putting a rolled-up towel at the base of the door.

Should I Run My AC Unit?

Instead of taking outside air in, recirculate indoor air, said Manish Sharma, vice president and chief product officer of Connected Buildings at Honeywell.

“I think that is the first thing we should start thinking about. Limit, as much as possible, outdoor air inside the building,” Sharma said.

Those who have an HVAC system with a fresh air intake option should set it to recirculate mode or close the outdoor intake damper, according to the EPA. Dampers are components, like valves, that control the system’s airflow.

Those who have window AC units should also close the outdoor air damper, which Horner said is often built-in to save energy by recirculating air since the appliance doesn’t have to work to cool air coming from outside.

“If you’ve got an outdoor episodic air pollution event, you would certainly want to close off the outdoor air supply — if that feature is available,” Sharma said.

If the window unit doesn’t have an outdoor air damper, Horner said, it should not be turned on when the air quality index indicates unhealthy levels of particulate matter outside.

What Kind of Air Purifier Should I Get?

A clean room requires running an air purifier as often as possible on the highest fan speed. Make sure to buy one that doesn’t produce ozone.

Chicagoans should purchase an air purifier with HEPA filters, said Ravi Kalhan, a pulmonologist at Northwestern Medicine.

According to the EPA, high-efficiency particulate air filters are a type of pleated mechanical air filter that can remove at least 99.97 percent of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria, and airborne particles with a size of 0.3 microns — the most penetrating particle size. HEPA filters trap larger or smaller particles with even higher efficiency.

“You could think of these filters like putting a giant N95 mask on your room and having all the air pass through it,” Kalhan said.

Other kinds of air purifiers — such as those that rely on ultraviolet light or ionizers — won’t help with pollution caused by wildfire smoke, Kalhan said. And air purifiers with ionizers can be dangerous for people with lung conditions, he said.

The biggest mistake people make when purchasing an air purifier is buying one that is too small for the area they plan to use it in, said Lou Manfredini, resident home expert with Ace Hardware. Most manufacturers rate their air purifiers based on square footage, he said, and buyers should purchase an air purifier rated for the space.

Though a good option, experts note that commercially available portable air cleaners can often sell out during air quality events.

How Can I Make My Own Purifier?

If you can’t find an air purifier on the shelves of any hardware or big-box stores, you could make one at home. This DIY project consists of duct-taping a pleated filter rated Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value 13 or higher to a box fan. MERVs indicate a filter’s ability to capture particles between 0.3 and 10 microns, and a higher MERV rating corresponds to greater filtering ability, according to the EPA.

“Get some good duct tape and just make sure you seal those together, with the filter on the backside where the air is being sucked in,” said Marilyn Black, vice president and senior technical adviser at the nonprofit research organization Underwriters Laboratories. “It’s not hard to do if you can put duct tape on straight.”

The EPA offers a guide with DIY instructions at epa.gov/air-research. The University of Washington’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences also has an infographic at deohs.washington.edu/edge/blog.

A similar DIY alternative is the Corsi-Ros

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• SDG 13: Climate Action

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 3.9: By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water, and soil pollution and contamination.
• SDG 11.6: By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.
• SDG 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Air Quality Index (AQI): The article mentions the importance of monitoring the AQI to determine when to take protective measures.
• Particulate Matter (PM2.5) Levels: The article discusses the harmful effects of PM2.5 from wildfire smoke and suggests using air purifiers with HEPA filters to remove these particles.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Source: governing.com

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