ok, let me hazard an attempt at getting some honest answers from people who
use them - no salesman please. Should I decide to buy more than the dept
store variety HEPA, I'll solicit salesman - fair enough?
First - some history. I had asthma as a kid (like pre-teen to teens) and
remember many occasions being rushed to the ER in the middle of the night,
unable to breathe. This was back in the 70s. Got put on inhaler (primateen
mist variety) and slopholin (sp?), dimetapp (when it was still Rx) etc.
Eventually had a battery of alergy tests (you know, up and down arms,
shoulders etc). Only alergy? Cats. And we had 9 (yes, nine) at the time -
and I still love the beasts. Eventually I moved out on my own, avoided cats
and all was fine other than cronic stuffy nose etc, but no asthma to speak
of. Kept inhaler around for years for visiting relatives w/cats.
That was in New England. 5 1/2 years ago we moved to Los Angeles (where I
have worked for NASA Jet Propulsion Lab ever since - the reason we came
here). Lived in Pasadena, old house, dust everywhere, smog etc. 6 months
after arriving, I needed sinus surgery because I could no longer breath
through my nose. Still no asthma to speak of, just major nasal distress. Had
the surgery, discovered major polyps but all was significantly better with
breathing through my nose. Now my lungs started to fail. No real asthma
attacks but hard breathing. At one point, I had a luncg capacity test and my
lungs were operating at about 60% capacity! And I was only 36 years old! Not
right...
So a couple years later, we move north of LA where the air is much cleaner.
It's been about 3 years, my sinuses have been OK breathing-wise, but I was
starting to get sinus infections all the time. The last one about 3 months
ago left me in bed for a week. Finally, the ENT put me on singulair and
nasocort. Now I start getting real asthma, low level at first, but then more
serious. Not major attacks, but worrisome since it had been maybe 15+ years
since I experienced this level of asthma. Back to the Dr, who was pretty
sure the singulair would not *give* me asthma, but to be safe, I was
switched to zyrtec. Oh, and I carry a "rescue inhaler" with me again. And
I've actually had to use it a few times. sigh.
If you've stayed reading this long, I'm finallly getting to the air cleaner
part! So I decide that the level of dust here in the 'desert' is not
helping things. No idea why I'm still getting low level asthma all the time,
even on zyrtec and nasocort.
So I decide to order a couple Ionic Breeze Quadra units + a car unit and try
to at least clean the air around me. I read the near hidden warning on
Sharper Images site about ozone from the IB and people with history of lung
disease should check with their doctor before getting one. My ENT said they
(IB) are great, so I decide to give it a shot. Sharper Image was giving a 60
day return policy, so what the heck. Then my wife says Lets check the air
quality maps (we used to monitor them all the time when we lived in
Pasadena). Whoaaa! What's all this nasty OZONE doing in my supposed to be
clean air city? Like AQI of 150+ in recent days. SO I dug deeper and came to
the conclusion you all already know - asthma + ozone = trouble. big trouble.
Take 2 IB units at up to 50ppb O3 each, plus outdoor air, do some
concentration to AQI calcs, and we are at potential AQI levels of 250-300.
Deadly for me for sure. I seem to be very sensitive to the O3.
UPS hasn't delivered the IB units yet, and we called to refuse delivery.
Sharper Image quietly agreed and gave no hassle, no sales pitch etc at all.
They know these things are bad news.
That brings me to the question I started this topic with (whew!). Whay have
I included all this info? Well, partly to introduce myself and contribute a
bit of (reverse) support to the group, but also to give the doctors and
experienced folks here background to help me make an informed decision.
Sorrty to make you all wade through so much of the same.
Bottom line: I have one honeywell HEPA (model 17440, from my Pasadena days)
that I plan to clean out, buy new filter elements for and put back in
operation. But I want more filteration. I know we need to do lots of "source
removal." Here it's mostly dust, I think. The stuff just appears at a pace
that makes my head spin. What the heck *is* dust anyway? Dead and decayed
matter? Microbes? Chronic irritation from the devil himself?
SO my question is: Are units like the Austin really worth the money? Or is
it like water softeners - buy one from Home Depot for $500 and install it
yourself or have Culligan sell you essentially the same thing for $4000.
Should I just get another honeywell HEPA or two at home depot and deal with
the fan noise/filter replacement frequency?
If the units like Austin et al are really worth it, then which one? Which
manufacturer? I liked the Austin Healthmate 1000+sqft capacity. We have a
very open design, 2400swqft house that I just want clean air throughout.
Even my kids (ags 6&4)are starting to cough and it really scares me. HELP!
john
gumbo - 27 Jul 2003 12:56 GMT
I'd make a few suggestions. Please note I'm not medically qualified
so you should not take this as medical advice, always consult your
doctor before taking any action.
1. Chronic stuffy nose. This is often a sign of house dust mite (HDM)
allergy, or it could be that you are still affected by cat allergen.
I recommend you get another set of allergy tests now, as you may have
additional allergies to those that were detected as a child. I believe
the best test is a blood test (RAST test) which examines your blood for
specific allergen antibodies, although a "skin prick" test will give a
good first approximation. People with cat allergy are very often allergic
to HDM and grass pollen as well. I wouldn't rely on allergy tests that
were taken more than a few years ago, the picture can change.
2. If you have HDM allergy, you need to remove the HDM habitats from your
house. To do that, you need to:
- remove all soft furnishings, especialy cloth-upholstered furniture, and
replace with hard versions or plasic/leather-covered (but watch out for hidden
cloth surfaces in plastic/leather covered suites that can vent the allergen);
- remove all carpets and replace with a hard floor; carpets are a health risk;
- cover all bedding mattresses with mite allergen barrier covers, ditto
for pillows and comforters; wash any blankets weekly at >60%C;
- routinely open the windows to reduce indoor humidity and ventilate house;
- remove all fabric curtains, replace with plastic curtains or roller blinds;
- remove all soft toys; don't bother trying freezing them, just throw them out;
- throw all the old clothes in the wardrobe/cupboards in the trash;
- minimise the number of books, magazines and papers lying around the place;
they all collect dust;
- vacuum inside your PC now and again; I get loads of dust collecting
inside mine, and the case fan blows it straight out into the room;
- perform all vacuuming with a HEPA cleaner (but be aware that many
manufacturers now use "HEPA" as a marketing term while their cleaners
still leak allergen from the machine).
This all sounds fairly radical, but actually it's nowhere near as bad as it
sounds once you start doing it, you soon get used to living in the more
healthy home environment.
To have a clinical impact on allergic symptoms, you need to reduce the
allergen levels by at least two orders of magnitude; it's no good doing
this by half measures. The bedroom is the most important place to reduce
your allergen exposure.
Having said the above, clinical trials of allergen avoidance have
typically shown disappointing results, due to the near-impossibility
or eliminating HDM populations from modern homes. However, reducing your
allergen load can't possibly do any harm.
Clinical trials of room air filters have shown that they have no
value in improving patient symptoms.
The UK national asthma campaign site www.asthma.org.uk gives a good
rundown of what allergen avoidance techniques are valuable, based upon
the current scientific thinking. Another good site is A.A.I.R
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~aair/.
3. As you know you have cat allergy, do you know if there have ever been
cats in the house, before you moved there? The cat allergen chemical
is non biodegradable (ie it stays active for decades, as does the
HDM allergen) and adheres to all the surfaces in the house, eg walls,
ceilings, carpets, curtains etc (the submicron sized particles are normally
in suspension in the air when cats are in residence and some adhere
electrostatically to the interior of the building). Even if there has not
been a cat in the house for years, you could still be exposed to the allergen.
You only need to breathe in micrograms of the allergen to get an allergic
reaction.
If there has even been a cat in the house, you need to steam clean or wash
all surfaces to remove any traces of the allergen. Avoid cats like the plague.
4. Pollen allergy is another potent source of chronic stuffy nose. Pollen
levels are usually highest at night resulting in the common experience of
waking up with a blocked nose.
If your new allergy tests show pollen allergy, you could try window pollen
filters or local steroids (eg nasal fluticasone) or mast-cell inhibitor
eye-drops, along with the antihistamines. Maybe your central air
conditioning filter would take the pollen out, although I'd be prepared to
bet it's not as good as the manufacturers claim.
5. Do you live near busy roads which carry lots of traffic?
Diesel engines emit submicron carbon particles (PM10's) which are highly
dangerous, they cause lung inflammation and long term lung disease as
they are of a size that lodges in the lung and is not expelled with the
breath, once they're in there, you're stuck with them.
In the UK there has been at least one PM10 "national incident" this year
where the government air pollution monitoring service has detected dangerous
levels of PM10's in the air over much of the country. Counter-intuitively the
PM10 levels can be higher in rural areas than in cities, basically underneath
the downwind city pollution fallout zone. The increasing popularity of
diesel cars means that PM10 emissions are going up. If you live near
lots of traffic, I'd move.
Hope some of this helps.
-- gumbo