A recent study found that household air purifiers are capable of producing hazardous
Scientists at MITInstitute studied four different models of air purifiers. It turned out that some of them practically did not cope with air purification, while the air reproduced by the devices could contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and / or oxidation by-products, some of which are harmful to humans. The research results are published in Environmental Science and Technology Letters.
To conduct the experiment, scientists purchasedfour air purifiers ranging from $65 to $400. The devices were equipped with physical and chemical cleaning technologies. They then placed the equipment in a special chamber in which they purified the air of two types of VOCs: toluene and limonene.
It turned out that out of four devices, after 60-90Only two minutes removed both VOCs, and the remaining two – only limonene. That is, the speed of cleansing between devices also varied, and significantly. In addition, chemical compounds formed during the purification process were detected, including formaldehyde and acetone.
It is known that exposure to certain VOCs can cause cancer or impairment of lung, liver or kidney function.
Source: Phys.org