Can An Air Purifier Make You Sick?

Falling ill for no apparent reason makes you question and be suspicious of everything present in your home. In this case, an Air purifier might be the first one to take the heat like a lot of people are confused about how an air purifier works and if their air purifier is causing them to have a sore throat, cough, headache, nose bleed, etc. The burning question remains, can air purifiers make you sick? Do they work in a way that can trigger uneasiness? The truth is air purifiers will never make you sick. After all, they are specifically intended to reduce the number of contaminants in the air and improve your health. Nevertheless, it is very important to get yourself equipped with some credible information when it comes to the above-mentioned issues. In this article, we will be addressing each and every concern thoroughly that will help you get a better understanding of the impact that a good air purifier can have on your health.

Can An Air Purifier Make You Sick?

Can you get sick from an air purifier? If you have been asking this to yourself, we must clarify that NO, an air purifier won’t get you sick. Rather, it is a device that helps clean the air around you from hazardous particulates and contaminants. An air purifier is considered to be good for your health as it reduces the symptoms of allergy as well as puts a stop to the spreading of germs in the air. An air purifier helps you breathe safer, sleep peacefully, and live healthier.

If at all you need to be worried about anything, it is an ozone generator. An ozone generator emits harmful ozone of high concentration and leads to causing sickness, throat irritation, chest tightness, and aggravate respiratory conditions including our lungs, asthma. You must keep in mind that an ozone generator is not an air purifier and is not approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

1. Can An Air Purifier Cause Headaches?

The answer to this is simply NO. Air purifiers do not give you headaches. Instead, the air purifiers tend to ease the symptoms by eliminating the airborne irritants. Some environmental factors known to cause or trigger a chronic or sinus headache are dust, debris, dust mites, mold spores, pollen, pet dander, germs, and odors. A HEPA filter (not to confused with HEPA like or other inferior variants) captures 99.97% of the allergens of size as small as 0.3 microns before it enters your body and hampers blood circulation. However, if your headache still persists, it would be better to visit a doctor for prescriptions like antihistamines, migraines, or anti-inflammatory medications.

2. Can An Air Purifier Cause A Sore Throat?

A very common concern among people is- Can air purifiers cause sore throat? NO. A typical air purifier does not cause sore throats as it contains a HEPA filter. In lieu, they do the opposite by removing the bacteria/viruses from the air that makes you sick and help prevent sore throats. The sole purpose of air purifiers is to create an atmosphere of healthy and purified air in order to reduce the occurrence of sore throats and sickness. It is a well-known fact that pharyngitis or sore throat is often caused by airborne viral infections like cold or flu. A HEPA filter reduces the population of these notorious germs, bacteria, and viruses in the air thereby making it 100x safer and healthier.

However, there are a few air purifiers that cause throat irritation which is completely different from having a sore throat. These ionic air purifiers” or “air ionizers” tend to create throat irritation if you already have a chronic respiratory condition such as asthma. This is because they emit certain charged particles into the air for cleaning them. Even though these dispersed charged particles cause throat irritation, they are totally harmless to our bodies.

3. Can An Air Purifier Make You Cough?

If sometimes, you notice yourself coughing when you turn on an air purifier and think whether this is due to the air purifier, we would like to say that you are mistaken. An air purifier won’t make you cough irrespective of whether it is dry/wet cough, croup, or whooping cough. In contrast, air purifiers alleviate cough by using their multi-layer air filtration system to eliminate airborne allergens. If you tend to experience severe coughing, a dust air purifier for allergies will be a perfect match for you. This will lead to the reduction of harmful contaminants from the air and coughing overall.

4. Can An Air Purifier Cause Breathlessness?

Outdoor and indoor air pollution is believed to be disruptive to any person’s health. However, for people with existing respiratory issues like asthma, pollutants in the air can be aggravating them. People with respiratory illnesses struggle a lot more to cope-up with the contaminants present in the air. Nevertheless, an air purifier does not create breathlessness instead, provides a healthier, cleaner, and safer atmosphere for people. The air purifiers reduce the symptoms of certain respiratory issues such as COPD, asthma, and allergies that lead to breathlessness in people.

Steadfast Measures To Avoid Getting Sick From An Air Purifier

1. Buy The Right Air Purifier According To Your Conditions And Allergies

You may consider your home a safe haven from contaminants and allergens. Yet, you need to comprehend that, despite the fact that you can’t necessarily tell by looking at it, indoor air is certainly double as contaminated as the outside air because of dust, mold, and chemicals that gather in the encased space of your homes over the long run. Air purifiers come to the rescue in these situations as they are incredible devices intended to the air of dust, smoke, pollen, and other unpleasant pollutants that can cause discomfort and disease.

Selecting a suitable air purifier depends greatly on the type of condition you have. In case of allergies, a true HEPA filter, as well as an activated carbon filter, can do wonders by filtering airborne particulates, gases, smoke, and odors. A HEPA filter works to remove 99% of large and small airborne allergens including pollens, molds, bacteria, etc, and create a safer atmosphere for you, especially those having an allergy or respiratory illness. Moreover, HEPA filters incorporated with silver ion filter technology provide better protection against molds and helps you get rid of mold spores more effectively.

When it comes to VOC or Volatile Organic Compounds, there are a lot of products that cause the emission of these VOCs like Paints, Nail polishes, Carpeting, Adhesives, Aerosol sprays, Household cleaners, Air fresheners, Pesticides, Craft supplies, Solvents, and wood preservatives. The VOCs have proven to show adverse effects on a person’s lung health. Portable air purifiers are an incredible method to bring down the concentration of potentially dangerous VOCs in a home or office setting. A lot of these purifiers contain multiple filters that do not only trap large particles (dust and debris) but also nanoparticles that most VOCs are made of.

2. Avoid An Ozone Generating Air Purifier

Some purifiers release ozone gas during their operation as a part of their air-purifying method. Ozone is believed to react with and destroy unwanted chemicals, irritants, and disease-causing microbes in the air. However, ozone is extremely toxic and harmful to humans and causes inflammation of the throat and lungs. Prolonged exposures to ozone lead to breathlessness, coughing, tightness in your chest, and even irreversible lungs damage leading to early death in weak individuals.

Some ionic air purifiers use electricity to release negatively charged ions and capture unwanted particulate matter in the air. In addition, this electricity interferes with Oxygen molecules (O2) and converts them into Ozone (O3). Even though ozone is considered safe in very small amounts yet it would be wise to avoid air purifiers that use or emit ozone gas. A HEPA filter is a best and efficient alternative for ozone air purifiers as they are capable of removing 99.97% of particulate matter (0.3 microns).

3. Timely Clean Or Replace Filters

An air purifier could get worse if you do not perform regular maintenance by changing or replacing the filters regularly. In the case of HEPA filters, the filters tend to clog and subsequently create a lot of issues affecting the efficiency of your air purifier as well as your health if you fail to clean or change them regularly. Dead clogged bacteria in the filters can release toxins into the air. Trapped mold spores also stay alive, grow and feed on the dirt which is stuck in the filter. This, in turn, releases spores that are recirculated into the air making it unsafe for you to breathe. The electrically charged plates of electrostatic air purifiers can stop working efficiently on getting too dirty. However, the fan keeps working which blows back the pollutants back into the air of your home. Therefore, it is advisable to clean and maintain your air purifier filters for breathing safer as well as healthier air.

Some air purifier models come with reusable filters while with others, you have to manually check and replace filters as and when performance declines or the indicator tells.

Final Thoughts

To sum it up, air purifiers are absolutely safe to install and use in your homes. But the root of this concern arises mostly from many false online reports. The unethical reports are usually directed at Ozone generators which people tend to confuse with a true HEPA filter. This leaves the people with false and inaccurate information. While looking for an ideal air purifier for your home, be aware of the ozone-generating models. Moreover, search for a high-quality air purifier with HEPA filters. Maintaining the purifiers by regular cleaning will offer several benefits; prevent allergies, improve your health, and generally make your home a much purer and pleasant place to be.