There are plenty of air purifiers and filtration systems on the market nowadays that claim to do things like kill the coronavirus in the air or use charged particles to pull dust out of the air.
How can consumers tell which of these claims are real and which are junk?
Dr. Marwa Zaatari, a member of the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force and Chief Science Officer at Dzine Partners, tells KCBS Radio that customers should stick to the tried and true methods of air filtration.
“It’s better to focus on the proven technologies: outside air, filtration, MERV 13 or HEPA and we have the UVGI which is the ultraviolet, which can be in your system or upper room. That’s the only processes and technologies that we know work and have a standard and guidelines and are proven.”
Dr. Zaatari says there are plenty of new products on the market that claim to have a proprietary system for effectively cleaning the air, without evidence to back up their claims.
She warns people to “stay away as much as possible from any ionizing technology, UV PCO, ozone generators."
“I call this the art of selling nothing. At best they don’t work and at worst - as we’ve seen in peer reviewed independent research - they actually produce harmful byproducts.”
With schools in particular, Dr. Zaatari says school buildings are already built to meet a certain standard for clean air. Instead of buying a brand new, untested system, school administrators should spend stimulus funds to ensure that the existing systems are well-maintained.
“If you just have the outside air as designed and upgrade your filters to MERV 13, if you just do these two, you’ll be in a very, very good position.”
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