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Re: Air Purifier for Ultrafine Particulate Matter (UFPM)

A Reader writes:

Hi Ed,

You have an amazing website, and I can’t tell you how valuable it’s been in educating myself to the world of air purifiers.

My question is about that tiny particulate matter known as ultrafine PM – or particulates smaller than 0.1 micron.

I live near a freeway and have recently learned all about them, and I’m trying to find a purifier or whole house filter/purifier that is effective in eliminating the types of ultrafine PM associated with car and truck combustion.

It’s been very hard to find a purifier or filter that addresses particulates this small.

Several claim to work down to 0.1, but only one has in its literature claims beyond that – that would be the IQ Air with its claimed effectiveness to 0.003 microns.

Am I missing something?

Do models other than the IQ Air have at least some effectiveness against ultrafines, and how can I find out how effective they are, and down to what size?

I’m looking at a whole house filter, too – the AccuClean. It claims to work on matter “smaller than 0.1 micron” – any idea how effective it is beyond 0.1 microns?

The other part of this is trying to find out exactly the size of these ultrafine PMs that are sourced at a freeway. Research I’ve found only states “smaller than 0.1 micron”. But is that 0.05? 0.005? Smaller than that?

This may be out of your expertise, but knowing the answer would go a long way towards determining if there even is a purifier on the market today that deals with these nasty things.

My 4-year old daughter suffers from asthma, and these toxic particulates seem to be all kinds of bad, especially for children like her, so anything you can enlighten me about purifiers built to combat them would be hugely appreciated!

Best regards,
A Reader,
Los Angeles, CA

Ed's Reply

Hey Reader;

Well, you have chosen to tackle an almost impossible challenge - elimination of particles so small as to be visible only with an electron microscope in a home near an L.A. freeway.

Ultrafine PM can go through the lungs into the bloodstream, and is a contributor to just about every modern disease.

I understand how you feel. We lived in Santa Monica 1977-81, and loved the Pacific waterfront atmosphere.

But our apartment was close to the Santa Monica freeway. There was no need for air conditioning, just open the window.

Oops.

We left after my wife developed "chronic bronchitis."

I had a great career in the mini-computer software business, (the PC was a few years distant).

So, like millions of others, I sought a commuting solution to escape the poor air quality in the LA basin. We spent lots of time at Big Bear and Pismo Beach, but no practical living arrangement could be found.

Nanoparticles and their oxidative stress are frontiers-of-science issue, out of just about everyone's expertise.

Researchers are still trying to quantify the adverse health effects of ultrafine PM.

Science still has no real-time monitoring technology for this size range - machines must suck in air for a period of time, then the slide is taken to the microscope, like counting blood cells, batch processing.

Ultrafine PM is too small to measure in any meaningful way with tools available at the residential level.

Collection efficiencies, which require accurate quantification, preferably in real-time, cannot be measured by tools available to us - typical laser particle counters go to .3 micron.

More sophisticated tools are extremely expensive.

HEPA filters can capture .1 micron, but efficiencies are questionable. Photocatalytic oxidation shows promise with ultrafines, but partial oxidation byproducts make me cautious.

Plasma-ion oxidation technology (Sharp Plasmacluster, Winix Plasmawave...) shows the most promise among lower priced units, but I use mine sparingly when close to the machine.

Don't forget that freeway air is heavy with molecular sized chemicals, acetaldehyde in particular, which are highly pro-inflammatory.

Obviously, among room air cleaners, this is a job for IQAir.

AccuClean is a premium furnace filter from American Standard, which also markets the very similar Trane CleanEffects whole house brand.

This is an electrostatic air cleaner (EAC) with a reputation for being difficult to keep clean. Electrostatics suffer efficiency drops when not kept extremely clean (dust loading test). Lab or initial results will be difficult to maintain over time.

See

AprilAire White Paper on EAC efficiency which highlights the Trane CleanEffects' efficiency decline on the 60 gram dust load tests.

I am not a fan of the whole house approach, see:

Whole House Air Cleaners

In short, your furnace fan and ducts are not suited for the pressures needed for a large True-HEPA installation.

This is why leading whole house units tend to be electronics.

And even if you spent many thousands, you'd never deal effectively with ultrafines with whole house.

I'd get a furnace filter upgrade to MERV-14, or higher, and have the HVAC system cleaned and maintained by a very trustworthy firm - not just any duct cleaning outfit that may use chemicals.

I'd look at removing particulate reservoirs, especially carpet, with the money saved on the central filter.

My brother had a house in a Detroit suburb, maybe 30 years ago, when the HEPA furnace filter industry was just getting started.

He bought the best filter, it was 7 inches thick, and ran the furnace fan 24/7. He replaced all the windows, removed all carpet, and installed sealed hardwood floors. He rushed to vacuum the filter daily, it did accumulate visible dust.

There was some reduction of his symptoms, but always running the fan was uncomfortable. Air currents still stirred up particles.

A couple years later he sold and moved up to a nicer suburb. The appraiser didn't add a nickel for his $25K of improvements.

Best get an IQAir for the child's bedroom, and run it 24/7, using the highest speed all day and the top speed she will tolerate at night.

Since you are the researcher type, why not focus on nutritional approaches to the asthma issue?

I recommend diet as the best approach to chronic inflammation. Check out omega 6/omega 3 fatty acid ratios in the grain-based diet. I use fish oil (molecular-distilled to remove heavy metals), and herbs - turmeric, ginger...) with visible results.

In my opinion, carbohydrate rich diets are the single most important factor driving the chronic inflammatory response.

Humans are not equipped, at a biological level, to handle the effects of the agricultural revolution.

We cannot handle the grain-based diet or eat meat raised with unhealthy grain-based fatty acid ratios. This includes even farm-raised fish.

"You don't know you're addicted until you try to quit."

The typical asthma patient is very attached to some form of sugar, and runs for the steroid-inhaler about 45 minutes after each dose of sugars.

This is a very hard habit for adults to break, with a child it is near impossible.