A HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) Filter can be part of common Air Purifier Units promising to improve the air quality in your home.
Recently, considering the pandemic environment, there has been a rush on these units but there are a lot of misconceptions about whether or not an air purifier meets the HEPA standard and what they can and can’t do.
What they are good for
HEPA filters are like a mesh of tangled fibres – they are designed such that large enough particles get trapped as they hit the fibres, so it is effective when particles are large enough -such as pet dander, pollen and dust mites.
While these filters remove some particles from the air, there are many harmful contaminants in the air that aren’t captured by the filter, such as:
· VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). These are chemicals that derive from building products, chemical cleaners and some cosmetic products, and are associated with concerning health effects.
· Viruses are too small to be removed from the air by the HEPA filter
· Bacteria - While bacteria are large enough to be trapped, bacteria are understood to release endotoxins into the air stream when dying on the air filter surface, which can result in some inflammatory responses in vulnerable people.
· Mould – mould spores can be caught by the filter but stay alive on the surface. Combined with other particles that accumulate, the spores can feed on the nutrient and grow spores which can eventually move through the filter and release into the air.
· So, in summary, while an Air Purifier can certainly catch the larger particles such as dust, pollen and animal dander, there are some short-comings if you are concerned about other air pollution and contamination.
· The answer to safe indoor air cleansing is an approved UV-C Air disinfection Unit, which not only draws large and small contaminants such as mould spores, bacteria and viruses into the Unit‘s filter but also then passes them across the Ultraviolet shielded tubes to kill 99.9% of the contaminants, delivering effortless disinfection in just a few minutes.