In recent years we’ve heard a lot of talk about the negative effects of secondhand smoke. If you yourself are a smoker or someone you live with smokes, you know firsthand how annoying secondhand smoke can be in your home.
But beyond annoying, cigarette smoke contains a lot of chemicals that are toxic. Even when not directly inhaled, these chemicals can impact our health in very negative ways. In fact, numerous studies have confirmed that secondhand smoke may lead to cancer and asthma in non-smokers.
What is Cigarette Smoke Composed Of?
Cigarette smoke is made up of particles. Some of those particles are visible to the human eye and some are invisible.
The smoke you can see floating in the air is primarily made up of carbon, ash, oils and tar and only constitutes 5 to 8% of the output. The remaining 92 to 95% of cigarette smoke contains invisible vapors that contain some nitrogen and oxygen along with toxic chemicals such as carbon monoxide, acrolein, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, nitrogen oxide, and more. If not eliminated, these chemicals linger in your home where they can be inhaled and make people and pets sick.
It should be mentioned that as bad as secondhand smoke is for adults, it is even worse for young children. A 2010 CDC study found that, “Secondhand exposure to tobacco smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults and sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, middle ear disease, exacerbated asthma, respiratory symptoms, and decreased lung function in children.”
A study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health found that, “When compared with never exposed children, children exposed to continuous secondhand smoke scored higher on self-reported aggressive behaviour and teacher-rated antisocial behaviour in fourth grade…similarly, children exposed to transient levels of secondhand smoke scored higher on aggressive and antisocial behaviour.”
As you can see, secondhand smoke is very bad and something you want to remove from your home’s environment.
What Air Purifier is Best for Smoke?
Many people dealing with secondhand cigarette smoke rely on opening a window to get fresh air inside their home. This is problematic for a couple of reasons. For starters, smoke tends to travel throughout the home quickly. While opening the window may let some fresh air in, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that all the smoke gets out.
Second, for those people who live in areas of the country that experience cold and harsh winters, opening a window is simply not always an option. The same can be said for people who live next to major highways or airports where the air quality outside may be even worse than the air inside.
This is why air purifiers are recommended for homes with smokers. But not all air purifiers are created equal, and not all will be able to remove harmful smoke particles from your home's air.
The following are features that you should look for in a quality air purifier that will tackle secondhand smoke in your home.
Gas-Phase Filter Air Purifiers
Remember in the beginning of this post I mentioned that cigarette smoke is made up of visible particles and invisible gases? It’s those gases that are the most harmful to our health, and so you’ll want to look for an air purifier that uses a carbon filtration system that can trap gaseous substances.
In addition, since these gases are all made up of different kinds and sizes of molecules, you will ideally want to look for a filtration that uses a multi-filter approach to remove as many VOCs as possible.
Our Austin B402 Air Purifier uses the most advanced filtration system Austin has ever designed. The unit uses a 5 Stage Filtration - HEGA Carbon Cloth to remove the highest number of toxic gas possible.
Find out more about this air purifier including impressive study results gathered when this filter was used to remove harmful gases from the environment.
HEPA Filtration
Along with the invisible VOCs, you’ll want to remove the visible smoke particles from your home like ash and tar. Air purifiers that use a HEPA filtration system can remove 99.97% of all particles that are 0.3 microns in diameter. This includes the particles in cigarette smoke. Not only will you breathe easier, but your home will smell much better as well.
The Austin B402 also uses HEPA filtration so you can give the air in your home a 1-2 punch.
Medical Grade Quality
What do you think of when you see the phrase “Medical Grade” on an item you are considering purchasing? You probably think it is somehow better than consumer grade products, and you’d be right.
Medical grade quality air purifiers have been built with the highest standards in mind. These units are often used in medical facilities where employees are subjected to harmful bacteria and viruses. If you know an air purifier does a great job in a hospital, you can feel good about it doing a good job in your home.
Many of our air purifiers, like the Austin B402, are medical grade and have been constructed using the highest standards and best materials.
360-Degree Air Intake
The more air that can enter and exit an air purifier the quicker the air quality in your home will be improved. Austin Air’s 360-degree intake system draws air into all sides of the Bedroom Machine®, passing it through that comprehensive 5 stages of filtration system I mentioned. The result is you get more clean air delivered faster and more efficiently than any other air purifier on the market.
When it comes to removing secondhand smoke from your home, there are certain features you must ensure your air purifier has. Pure Breeze Solutions is pleased to offer one of the absolute best air purifiers on the market that can remove not only the visible particles from the air using a powerful HEPA filter, but also the invisible and dangerous gases that can harm your health.
Do you still have questions? Please feel free to contact us. We don’t just sell air purifiers, we sell solutions. This is why we are always more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
Get in touch with us today and we’ll help you find just the right air purifier for your home.
