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The Best Portable Air Purifiers For Your Home
At Rise, we know you value your family’s health and are working to make sure your home reflects that value by paying attention to home furnishings. Many household products, from low-VOC furniture to zero-VOC paints, are becoming increasingly available on the market. Even so, it's still close to impossible to completely rid your home of VOCs, harmful gases, pollutants, and allergens that can compromise your health. Air purification technologies are relatively inexpensive ways to improve indoor air quality even if your home does not have an HRV or ERV system.
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Why Is Indoor Air Quality Important?
Americans spend, on average, 90 percent of their time indoors between school, the office, and their homes. Asthma, to name just one common respiratory problem, affects upwards of 25 million Americans, and exposure to VOCs, is known to aggravate asthmatic conditions. VOCs are also suspected of causing other health problems. Acute or short term exposure can lead to eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, dizziness, and even feelings of nausea. Long term or chronic exposure can cause cancer, liver and kidney damage, and potentially damage to the central nervous system.
Can Air Purifiers Remove All VOCs?
Almost every product that goes into making a home has the potential to release some sort of chemical that could off gas. From paints, aerosol sprays, air fresheners, cleaning agents, office equipment, building materials, to the furniture that adorns your home, VOCs are everywhere. Choosing zero-VOC paint is certainly a wise decision. But what about the glue your daughter needs for a science project at school or the carbonless copy paper you have in your home office?
VOCs are only one type of indoor air pollutant affecting our homes. According to the EPA, sources of indoor air pollution that can cause severe health problems include:
· Asbestos
· Biological Pollutants
· Carbon Monoxide
· Formaldehyde/Pressed Wood Products
· Lead
· Nitrogen Dioxide
· Pesticides
· Radon
· Indoor Particulate Matter
· Secondhand Smoke/ Environmental Tobacco Smoke
· Stoves, Heaters, Fireplaces, and Chimneys
Best Air Purifiers on the Market Today
Improving the indoor air quality of your home doesn’t mean that you need to spend or fortune or have to live with the windows open during the cold months.
Unlike air fresheners, which only add VOCs to our homes, air purifiers actively improve indoor air quality by eliminating VOCs, gasses, and other unwanted (and sometimes undetectable) odors floating around your home. Several different types of technologies are effective—such as filters made from carbon, magnesium dioxide, and copper oxide—in trapping harmful gaseous chemicals in your home. Below, we offer a complete review of the top five air purifiers on the market today.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.



