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Air Articles
Spring, Preparing
for Allergies with Air Purifiers
Employing air purifiers for the relief of allergies is just one
aspect of getting ready for a new season. The coming of spring is
often a mixed blessing to the vast numbers of Americans who suffer
from allergies. We're glad that the hard, cold days of winter are
over, but have little enthusiasm for the coming months of sneezing,
wheezing, and difficulty breathing. Most people procrastinate about
preparing for the season so that it hits them with a vengeance and
only then do they remember. If you had allergies last year, there's
a pretty good chance you will this year as well. Using air purifiers
alone will help but a more holistic approach will help even more
with your allergies. While air purifiers can help while you are
in your home you must be prepared to face the pollen and pollution
outside.
The following
are tips on preparing your life, your home, and your work environment
for allergy season. It is especially important not to procrastinate
if you have children with allergies. Children have a tough time
as it is concentrating in school when the weather gets nice outside.
When you add the difficulties from allergy symptoms, and the medications
that may need to be taken, it can be especially hard for them to
do good work in school.
Get started
right away, even if there is snow on the ground. Make an appointment
with your doctor or allergist. Evaluate the efficacy of the medicines
you took last allergy season and with your doctor, plan a strategy
for this season. Get your written Allergy Plan together. Many insurance
companies (such as Anthem) provide calendars with month to month
tips on addressing these problems. Get your insurance provider and
your doctor to send you everything they have. A phone call is easy
to make. It's especially important that you understand your doctor's
strategy for long term control and for quick relief. They may be
different medications. Review the filter life of your air purifiers
and if need be change them.
If you are
planning spring or summer vacations, get on the internet and check
out the weather and pollen conditions for the places you are intending
to visit at www.weather.com. Integrate these into your Action Plan.
Don't let an attack ruin your vacation, simply because you forgot
to plan for it and to take the appropriate medications with you.
Be ready
by the first day of spring. Get into gear and get your home into
shape as an oasis for breathing. There was a good reason people
did major spring cleaning in the olden days. During the closed-up
winter days, the home becomes heavy laden with dust and dirt, dust
mites in all those warm, wooly clothes and bedding, pet danders
and allergens, smoke, soot, and ash from fireplaces and woodstoves,
mold from closed up spaces, chemicals from all the grooming and
cleaning products used, and viruses and germs to boot. Get your
home, furnishings, bedding, carpets, upholstery, and clothes cleaned
up. Do the same with your office if at all possible.
Most importantly,
if you smoke, STOP! If you work around smokers, throw a fit and
make them stop doing it around you. Second hand smoke is poison
to allergy sufferers, and horrible for babies and children.
Once you've
cleaned up your act, keep it clean with room air purifiers in key
areas of your house. The bedroom is undoubtedly a key area. Many
allergy sufferers experience attacks in the middle of the night,
because the human respiratory system relaxes during sleep. Things
you can handle during the day will be more traumatic at night. You'll
want to keep a good room air purifier running in your bedroom 24
hours a day with the door closed if at all possible. You want to
sleep in the cleanest room possible. It will help you survive the
daytime.
Decide where
else in the house you or your family spends a majority of time,
and select a room air purifier large enough to adequately cover
that space. If you do lots of cooking or grilling on an indoor grill,
you may want an air purifier for your kitchen that can absorb chemicals.
With the
plethora of allergy air purifiers on the market, which one do you
choose? It helps to know specifically what you're allergic to. However,
if you're not sure, but just know that you can't breathe easily
during certain parts of the year, the vast majority of allergy doctors
recommend that the purifier has a HEPA stage. HEPA filters were
developed by NASA years ago for use in the space shuttle. HEPA means
High Energy Particulate Arresting. That means it sucks up the pollens
and stuff flying around in the air. Many companies sell HEPA air
purifiers, some much better in quality than others. The best have
5-10 year warranties on the machines themselves. HEPA filters have
to be changed. When you throw one out you'll be amazed at how despicable
they are and you'll be very glad you didn't breathe all that stuff.
Other types
of allergy air purifiers use ionization or electro-static technology
to absorb the particulate. These can be very helpful, but HEPA is
still the best way to go to get the vast majority of pollutants
and toxins out of your air.
It is also enormously helpful if air purifiers you choose have enough
activated carbon or other media to absorb gases and odors. Volatile
organic compounds (VOC's), paint fumes, formaldehyde outgassing
and other such unpleasantries can be absorbed in addition to the
particulates such as pollen.
Purchase
enough good quality air purifiers to clean your home and mark your
calendar so that you change the filters when they need to be changed.
Some air purifiers indicate when a filter needs to be changed and
some don't. It really doesn't matter. You can easily mark your calendar
with the manufacturer's recommendations, and simply change the filters
when it's time.
It's also
helpful to get the filters in your air conditioning system changed
before allergy season starts. If you don't know where to get the
filters, simply get the manufacturer's name off of the system and
call them up. They'll either carry the filters themselves or let
you know where to purchase them. Many systems have electro-static
filters, which can help keep the dust down. However, they don't
absorb all the pollens and other pollutants so you still need room
air purifiers in key areas of your house.
Just because
you have allergies, don't banish yourself from the beautiful outdoors
entirely. However, remaining indoors between the hours of 5:00 a.m.
and 10:00 a.m. are a good idea, because that's when pollen is usually
emitted. Stay inside on very windy days too. Wash your hair and
clothing when you've spent a lot of time outdoors, and wear a mask
to mow the lawn. Or better yet, pay some teenager who is desperate
for spending money to do it.
In summary,
if you start today and don't procrastinate you can face allergy
season without cowering, pick solid allergy air purifiers, be careful
as we suggested above and you will minimize your symptoms.
MSE
Johns Hopkins University
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