There have been questions on how to purify air from smoke due to its effects on health. Smoke is one of the factors responsible for causing thousands of deaths per year. This is as a result of inhalation of any form, which causes damages to the body over time, with a high risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and also affects some organs in the body.
Another thing which makes it so dangerous is its ability to harm both the smoker, the innocent man in the background inhaling, and an ignorant person that would come thereafter and inhale third-hand smoke. As a result of this, the knowledge of how to purify the air from smoke is well sort after.
All forms of smoke (resulting from a cigarette, burning fuel, or other sources), has a stubborn lingering nature, which makes it not exactly disappear like it appears to do visually. Its molecules are rather able to attach themselves to surfaces, eventually finding its way into the body of individuals in the area, long after it has supposedly disappeared. This is why there is a need for riding the area of smoke, and not just hoping it vaporizes away.
Your best bet in making that happen is by making use of an air purifier. These are specially designed devices, which are able to remove pollutants in the atmosphere with a good pedigree. They make use of filers that have been approved by several national health regulation bodies, forcing air through one end of layers of these filters, which ensures only a clean version comes out on the other side.
What are the major causes of smoke in the air?
Smoke can be caused by so many activities or processes which involve the disintegration of any type of material. The outcome is a collection of airborne particles that is proportional to the quantity of air, which was mixed with the combustion process. Burning is a process that releases these dangerous particles along with chemicals from the process into the air.
Most materials that get burnt releases some kind of smoke like furniture, for example (chair, matrasses, couches). They release highly toxic substances into the air like hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, and carolling. The level of toxicity of the smoke is determined by the content of material burnt.
Why you should clean the smoke in the air
Smoke is essentially a bit of tiny particles, as well as a bit of liquid droplets, which helps it stay suspended in the air, essentially becoming airborne for weeks.
After expending this duration, it could fall on nearby surfaces, still retaining its harmful properties if inhaled of by any chance after finding its way back into the air. These particles are smaller than 10 microns in diameter, which is the general size standard for particle pollution, while smoke mostly consists of fine particles as small as 2.5 microns and below.
Due to the size of these particles, they are able to lodge deep into the lungs, causing serious health effects in relation to their toxicity, such as aggravated asthma, throat irritation, lung damage, nose irritation, bronchitis, and even cancer. The smaller particles can get to the bloodstream even, affecting the heart as a result, while larger particles can able to cause irritation to the eyes, nose, and throat.
Can air purifiers remove smoke?
Air purifiers are specially designed electronic devices with the sole purpose of removing all forms of contaminations in the air, for a cleaner and safer space. After numerous tests of user feedback, we can confidently say that air purifiers are able to do just that if its specification and design are just right for the quality of the job.
For an air purifier to work, it must contain the right type of hardware for the job, which is why factors like the type of filters, airflow rate capacity (clean air delivery rate), size in comparison to the room, and not so important, the automated features.
How does air purifiers get rid of the smoke in the air?
The how-to purify air from smoke is a relatively difficult thing to get done ordinarily; however, with an air purifier, your work is made much easier.
Air purifiers primarily consist of filters, as well as a fan for drawing air in and pushing it out after filtration. There are also other parts that help make all these possible, of course, but we would simply be focusing on the only these two major components.
Firstly, the fan determines how fast air is drawn in and expelled after filtration and also the quantity of air that moves in and out at a time too. As a result of this, it is directly responsible for the air purifiers clean air delivery rate in cubic feet per minute.
Moving on to the major sales point in an air purifier, the filters are what largely determines the quality, as well as the cost of an air purifier unit. After the fan draws in air from the surrounding, this air is blown through a filter or layers of filters depending on the manufacturer’s design, with the filters trapping contaminants present in that volume of air while it moves through. This clean air is expelled, and another contaminated volume drawn in to repeat the same process.
In a much clearer view, the air purifier is continuously drawing in, and continuously expelling air at the same time, giving it the ability to circulate basically all the air in a room through its filters in no time. For dealing with smoke, it is important that the air purifier contains both a HEPA filter for trapping tiny particles down to 0.3 microns, as well as a carbon filter for removing smoke odour simultaneously.
Ways to effectively remove smoke and its smell from the air
Firstly, you should keep in mind that using air fresheners or scented additions to combat smoke isn’t in any way effective. They just simply end up masking the odour for a while, while doing nothing to actually remove the harmful toxins in the air.
Ventilation is important too and is even recommended as the first step to dealing with smoke, but they ultimately just dilute the smoke odour, while once again doing nothing about the actually harmful contaminants. Apply the following ways to get rid of the smoke and its smell from the air:
- Wash and scrub all affected exterior surfaces in the area, including walls, furniture, carpet, window, matrasses, and any other thing that wouldn’t cause damaged from washing.
- Interior surfaces are also not excluded and should be washed with mild soap, disinfected with appropriate solutions like vinegar, baking soda, and febreeze. This includes inside cabinets, drawers, and closets
- Scrub out and flush fire retardant residues if any, from surfaces using mild detergent and a brush
- Ultimately, purchase and install a good capacity air purifier. This ensures that whatever residue of smoke in the air is removed, and it is the most important step to carry out in combating smoke contamination. Using an air purifier alone can also get the job done, but at a much slower rate than combining all of these steps, which is essentially wrapped up procedures in one for how to purify the air from smoke.
Conclusion – How to purifiy air from smoke
Smoke should never be allowed to disperse naturally due to its very dangerous nature; rather, it should be removed from the air in whatever way possible.
Although the traditional process of cleaning, scrubbing, and proper ventilation helps, they do not account for particles in the air, because those ones cannot be cleaned off. As a result of this, there is not a better how to purify air from smoke than to make use of an air purifier.
Relevant Reviews: