Air Purifiers for Asthma Patients

How do air purifiers improve asthma symptoms and which type of air purifier is best for asthma? This article will help you decide which device is right for you.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease in which the immune system overreacts to certain environmental influences. Typical symptoms are increased mucus secretion in the bronchial tubes, which leads to narrowing of the airways and thus shortness of breath. The causes and manifestations of asthma are diverse, so it is difficult to study the effectiveness of countermeasures such as purifying certain components of the air.

In general, two forms of asthma can be distinguished: allergic asthma, which has extrinsic causes and is triggered by an increased concentration of certain allergens in the air. On the other hand, intrinsic non-allergic asthma is usually caused by respiratory infections or medication intolerance.

Allergic asthma can be triggered by a variety of allergens in the air: including animal hair, pollen, house dust mites and their excrement, and mold. However, it is often not the typical allergens that cause the development of non-allergic asthma, but rather viruses and bacteria in the air we breathe. All asthma sufferers are also particularly sensitive to other air pollutants, especially tobacco smoke and ozone .

While all air purifiers suitable for allergy sufferers can be used to treat allergic asthma, attention should also be paid to their bactericidal effect for non-allergic asthma.

Fine particle filters can filter out animal hair, house dust and pollen, helping to reduce the concentration of allergens in the air. HEPA filters are particularly suitable for asthma sufferers. HEPA filter means high-efficiency particulate air filter and is the name of an air purifier that can filter out suspended particles with a size of up to 0.1 micrometers. Depending on the model, more than 99.9% of pollutants and allergens can be removed from the air.

Activated carbon filters can also be used as additional filters for asthma sufferers. These are particularly effective against organic chemicals in the air [4]. This is particularly interesting for asthma sufferers, whose illness is mainly caused by the increased irritation in professional working environments, such as paint and varnish fumes.

For people with non-allergic asthma, it is even more important to keep the air free of viruses and bacteria. Here, too, HEPA filters effectively suppress airborne bacteria. Bacteria, larger viruses and mold spores are larger than the filter pore size and are retained. It is particularly important to use air purifiers hygienically: Clean the device regularly and replace the filters after the prescribed period of use to prevent bacteria from multiplying inside the air purifier and escaping from it.

Bactericidal filter additives are useful for asthma sufferers: The UV lamps in air purifiers kill bacteria and viruses with their radiation and thus improve the indoor air.

Ionizers are a separate class of air purifiers, some of which can also be used as additives for several filter devices. They use high voltage to generate charged particles in the air, which then aggregate together to form larger clusters that sink to the ground due to weight. However, this is not a big advantage for asthma sufferers: Most of the time, the number of pollutants in the room is not significantly reduced; it's just that they are not in the air, but in the dust on the floor and furniture. Air ionizers do not improve asthma symptoms.

In the worst case, air ionizers are not only unhelpful, but even harmful: while they produce charged air particles, most devices also produce ozone. Depending on the specific design, this highly reactive gas escapes to the outside to a greater or lesser extent. There are even specialized ozone generators that are designed to produce large amounts of ozone. For asthma sufferers, all devices that produce ozone are dangerous: this gas is a component of the air that has been shown to make the disease worse.