Combatting bad odours with an air purifier

We are all familiar with the various bad odours in a home: the kitchen, the toilet, DIY projects, or cleaning can all be culprits. All home activities have the potential to produce odorous gases which lead to smells that are not always pleasant.

That’s where an air purifier comes in. An air purifier is a device that uses a fan (powered by a motor) to circulate air and pass it through a system of filters and pollution control technologies located within the device. This process completely eliminates bad odours. Rather than simply covering them up like some other technologies, with an air purifier, the odours are captured and destroyed or their components are broken down. Some odours that are easily tackled by an air purifier are fishy smells, kitchen smells, cigarette smoke, smells created from frying foods, smells caused by mould or humidity, or even the smell of paint.

Beware of air fresheners and fragrances

As previously mentioned, the goal of an air purifier is not simply to mask a smell but to destroy the smell completely, unlike a diffuser. A diffuser takes one form of pollution and replaces it with another perceived as 'more pleasant'¹. It is important to keep in mind that diffusers, while associated with pleasant smells, do carry risks and can also cause irritation or allergies. Although such devices are intended to refresh indoor air, they release polluting agents such as benzene or formaldehyde. The use of chemical air fresheners, sprays, and even products containing natural substances such as essential oils have the capacity to pollute your indoor air.

Rid your home of bad odours once and for all

A house contains a multitude of smells, all varying in their degree of pleasantness, even when it’s properly aired out every day. Odours are, simply put, molecules present in the air that are detected by our olfactory systems when we breathe them in. Air pollution happens almost immediately once an activity begins: within a few minutes of cooking, burning a scented candle, performing a physical activity, or smoking a cigarette. Although these particles are impossible to see, they settle on everything around us including our clothes, our furniture, and our belongings. While some bad odours are simply unpleasant, others can pose serious dangers to our health, notably VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Some of these odours are odourless but pollute and can harm us nonetheless. One of the more infamous is formaldehyde. An odourless gas, formaldehyde is extremely dangerous to our health and is one of the most common components of indoor air pollution. It is generated by all new furniture, textiles and upholstery as it is heavily used in manufacturing industries.

Perhaps unsurprisingly so, one of the primary sources of indoor air pollution in the home is caused by tobacco use. Cigarette smoke is a known cause of a handful of diseases, notably cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Smokers are not the only ones affected by cigarette smoke, however. Second-hand smoke affects non-smokers alike. Cigarette smoke leaves behind a pollution of the air that can take long periods of time to dissipate and, additionally, leaves its traces everywhere in the house: walls, surfaces, clothes, furniture, etc. This is called third-hand smoke.

Other common forms of pollution are pesticides from gardening and agriculture, and fine particles (from cooking or heating with gas, smoke, wood heating, car traffic, etc.).

A high-performance air purifier likes ours works to combat these various air pollutants in the home, whether it be from cooking (grease, fish, or frying odours) or cigarette smoke. Odourous particles are removed from the air including all the pollutants that can play a devastating role on our health: formaldehyde, ammonia, aniline, benzene, fumes, etc.

Employing an air purifier to fight bad odours

An air purifier cleans the bad odours found in your indoor air using its powerful filtration system. Eoleaf has purposefully designed its air purifier in a cylindrical shape. This aids in mixing the air more efficiently, purifying the air of your indoor space in just a few minutes. The air then passes through the eight different filtration technologies found in our devices, each of which is designed to target a different form of pollution: germs, fine particles, chemical pollution, etc.

Eoleaf air purifiers use a medical-grade HEPA filter to capture 99.97% of fine particles and gases down to a size of 0.01 microns.

One of the eight filtration technologies in particular is very effective in fighting bad smells: the activated carbon filter. Activated carbon can retain both gaseous and aqueous pollutants (hence its common use in air and water filters) and is a very versatile filtration technology.

Like our devices, the activated carbon filter is cylindrical in shape. This increases their contact surface and their volume. These filters are also treated in such a way as to eliminate impurities and increase their absorbent properties. Since their structure is porous, these filters have a high capacity of fixing and retaining pollution particles and gases.

For example, a single gram of activated carbon can absorb the pollutants present in an area of 400 to 2500 m².

All of the filters used in Eoleaf air purifiers come equipped with activated carbon. This allows bad odours and impurities in your air to become a thing of the past.

References

¹ Aublanc, M. (2018, May 24). Are Essential Oils Dangerous for Your Health? www.20minutes.fr. Retrieved January 7, 2023, from https://www.20minutes.fr/sante/2277123-20180524-allergies-mal-utilisees-huiles-essentielles-elles-dangereuses-sante