The good news: Portable air purifiers can be very effective, reducing indoor particle concentrations by up to 85 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Experts say you should choose air purifiers that have high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters and a clean air delivery rate (a metric of how effective they are at removing pollutants) of at least two-thirds the size of the room for which they are intended.
“You really want to get the biggest one you can afford that will fit in your room,” said Dr. Barbara Mann, a pulmonologist and assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
For most rooms, a clean air delivery rate equal to 300 cubic feet per minute should be sufficient, he said.
To maximize the effectiveness of air purifiers, change their filters at the recommended intervals and keep windows closed when using them, Mann added.
Also consider pollutants that may come from indoor sources, said Dr. Peter Moschovis, a pulmonologist and critical care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
“Don’t generate extra particles indoors if you can,” he said. “So smoking, vaping, burning incense, aerosolized essential oils, all of those things are not good for your lungs to begin with.”
Palm said the current situation highlights the long-term risks of wildfires, especially as climate change creates warmer, drier conditions that make such fires more likely and more severe.
“Over the last decade or so, these fires have been increasing and having an increasing impact not only where the fires are, but very downwind,” he said.
The US Environmental Protection Agency, along with partner agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA, maintains a interactive map of air quality data called AirNow which allows users to view the locations of active fires and assess local conditions and risks.
Claire Cardona contributed.
