Air Purifiers Are Not Too Effective When Struggling Against Viruses

Affected by the current epidemic, some users will choose to use air purifiers to improve indoor air quality and prevent virus transmission. However, at today’s press conference of the State Council’s joint prevention and control mechanism, some experts said that using an air purifier may not necessarily filter out viruses.

Feng Luzhao, a researcher at the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, ‘Air purifiers commonly used in the market are composed of fans and filtering devices. The fan sucks in the air in the home. And the filtering component filters out various pollutants through adsorption. Then it exhausts the filtered air. There is no requirement for the killing rate of viruses or other pathogenic microorganisms. So it may not filter out the virus.’

The air purifiers are mainly suitable for one or more pollutants in the air. At the same time, experts also said that ordinary households insist on daily ventilation. But because the current temperature is relatively low, when opening the window to ventilate, you should pay attention to the large temperature difference between indoor and outdoor to avoid colds.

Currently more commonly used air purification technologies are: adsorption technology, negative (positive) ion technology, HEPA high-efficiency filtration technology, electrostatic dust collection technology, etc. In this sense, material technologies include photocatalyst, activated carbon, synthetic fiber, etc. The air purifiers on the market mostly use multiple purification technologies and material media at the same time.

Shortly, those who have been thinking the air purifiers can help them avoid viruses should think of other approaches. We mean the air purifiers have a certain goal. And that’s not killing viruses.