New Delhi: Have you stepped outside and felt the thick toxic air seeping into your lungs? The air in Delhi and its nearby areas like Noida, Gurugram, and Ghaziabad has hit record high levels with maximum AQI touching the 450-mark, classified as hazardous. The air pollution of Delhi is making Delhiites choke every second causing widespread coughing, sore throat, and burning eyes. A dense layer of smog has covered NCR for many days now.
How hazardous is smog for your health?
Smog causes respiratory issues, aggravates asthma, and irritates eyes and throat. Long-term exposure may also lead to chronic lung conditions and increase cancer risk. In such hazardous conditions, how will you protect yourself?
However, the government is trying its best to reduce the AQI. The implementation of GRAP-4 norms which bans construction and demolition activities, discontinues physical classes and many more is showing its results with lower AQI on some days.
The most important thing that needs to be done right now is to avoid outdoor exposure, but the question is, does the air inside your house is as safe as you think? This is where we think of air purifiers.
In these challenging times do air purifiers shield you from harmful air pollutants and improve indoor air quality?
Let us first understand how air purifiers work.
Air intake: The air purifier draws in polluted and toxic air through an intake vent from outside, starting the filtration process.
Pre-filtration: The large particles such as dust, and lint are filtered out by the pre-filters before the air reaches the main filters for filtration. At the centre of an effective air purifier is the HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filter which helps in removing 99.97% of airborne particles as small as 0.3 microns in size.
Filtration process: The air passes through HEPA and activated carbon filters, which capture dust, allergens, and harmful gases like smoke and odours.
UV-C light: If the purifier has UV-C light, it kills bacteria, viruses, and microbes, helping disinfect the air before releasing it outside.
Ionisation: Ionisers play an important role by releasing negative ions that attach to airborne pollutants, making them heavier and easier to trap or settle.
Release of clean air: The purified air is released into the room through an outlet vent, improving the indoor air quality.
Continuous circulation: This process continues and purified air is circulated regularly ensuring a constant flow of clean air throughout the room.
Air purifiers can be highly effective in reducing indoor pollution, especially during high AQI levels. While they cannot directly improve outdoor air quality, they work to eliminate the harmful particles that enter your home from the polluted air outside. By trapping allergens, dust, smoke, and PM 2.5 particles, air purifiers provide much-needed relief in areas affected by poor air quality.
Although air purifiers help protect our health to a certain extent, their effectiveness decreases when the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaches severe to hazardous levels. During such times, it is essential to follow certain guidelines to minimize the health risks. These include avoiding outdoor activities as much as possible, refraining from jogging or exercising in open areas, and stepping out only with a proper mask. Following these steps can significantly reduce the impact of poor air quality on health.
Air purifiers can be highly effective in reducing indoor pollution, especially during high AQI levels. While they cannot directly improve outdoor air quality, they work to eliminate the harmful particles that enter your home from the polluted air outside. Health News Health News: Latest News from Health Care, Mental Health, Weight Loss, Disease, Nutrition, Healthcare
