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Craving a breath of fresh air…even while inside? There’s one important feature you should look for if you or someone in your household or office is considering investing in an air purifier, report two new Mayo Clinic studies.
While there are specificcertification programsthat shine a spotlight on air cleaners that are proven to remove pollution from the air, there’s one very specific feature you should look for in the best air purifiers, these Mayo Clinic studies say: A high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter.
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The medical pros conduct exercise stress tests regularly for heart patients at their facilities. For this newChest Journalstudy, they discovered that even with the increased exertion and aerosols floating around the room after the heavy breathing during said stress tests, a HEPA filter was able to capture all the aerosols and reduce the time needed to clear the air between patients.
“Our work was conducted with the support of Mayo Cardiovascular Medicine leadership who recognized right at the start of the pandemic that special measures would be required to protect patients and staff from COVID-19 while continuing to provide quality cardiovascular care to all who needed it,” says Thomas Allison, Ph.D., director of Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing at Mayo Clinic in Rochester in areport published on the Mayo Clinic News Network. “Since there was no reliable guidance on how to do this, we put a research team together to find answers through scientific testing and data.”
To examine this, Allison and team added a plastic tent to their lab to control and monitor the air. Laser particle counters detected aerosols circulating around the eight stress test participants as each individual rode on an exercise bike. The volunteers wore gear that measured heart rate, oxygen consumption and ventilation. As expected, aerosol concentrations increased exponentially as people pedaled and breathed more rapidly and harder, and exercise at or above 50% of the volunteer’s typical resting heart rate showed substantial increases in aerosol concentration.
“I think we have proven dramatically what many suspected—that is why gyms were shut down…Exercise generates millions of respiratory aerosols during a test, many of a size reported to have virus-carrying potential. The higher the exercise intensity, the more aerosols are produced,” Allison says.
Now here comes an important addition: As part of a follow-up study inChest Journal, Allison and team tried to determine the best and quickest way to remove these particles from the air. Six new volunteers completed the same 20-minute exercise bike test as in the previous study, first without, then with a portable HEPA filter running.
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Even if you’re not buying an air purifier for your home gym and just use it for regular bedroom or office use, it still holds true that HEPA filters are helpful to filter out contaminants in the air. Looking to invest wisely after learning about this news? The Germ Guardian True HEPA Filter Air Purifier and the Honeywell HEPA Extra-Large Room Air Purifier each have five-star reviews.
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