VOC and ODOR filtration

How can you remove odors, volatile organic pollutants (VOCs) or gases from household chemicals and other sources from indoor air? An air purifier with an activated carbon filter is recommended. By also reducing your exposure to pollutants, your home will smell as fresh as it looks - with cleaner, healthier air.

 

Not all smells are the same. They can be pleasant or unpleasant, harmless or even harmful to health. Most chemical pollutants are created indoors, but they can also enter the building with the outside air.

 

Household chemicals and your health

Odors come from either organic or inorganic compounds. There are a variety of sources of chemical contamination. Typical sources of odors in homes and businesses are so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). As carbon-containing organic compounds, VOCs spread quickly in the air. In a poorly ventilated environment, this increases the health risk for living and working.

 

Typical sources of VOCs indoors
  • Air fresheners and scented products such as perfume, shampoo, etc.
  • Cleaning products
  • Carpets and vinyl floors
  • Gaskets, sealants and coatings
  • Adhesives
  • Paints, varnishes and stains
  • Fuels and chemicals intended for combustion
  • Fabrics and furniture

The extent to which exposure affects your health depends on the amount of chemical in the air you breathe, the frequency of exposure, the harmfulness and your personal sensitivity to that chemical. Symptoms can range from mild (itchy eyes) to severe (damage to the kidneys, liver or central nervous system).

An air purifier with special filters is particularly effective at removing harmful gases and unwanted odors in your home. A standard particle filter is not designed to remove gases and odors. To successfully remove these, the air purifier should have a filter with activated carbon. A filter like the Blueair SmokeStop is particularly efficient at capturing smoke, odors and other harmful gaseous chemicals.

Combining 1-2 kilos of activated carbon with magnesium dioxide and copper oxide, the SmokeStop activated carbon filter is ideally equipped to remove harmful chemicals and unpleasant odors. The high volume and weight of the activated carbon, as well as the low-density design and large surface area of the mechanical filter media, ensure that the filters last a long time without clogging. For the ultimate solution for removing smoke and gases (up to four times faster), a DualProtection filter with powdered, highly porous coconut activated carbon is recommended.

The SmokeStop and DualProtection filters, in combination with the HEPASilent® technology, achieve a particularly high level of performance and efficiency. The HEPASilent technology

combines the advantages of electrostatic and mechanical filtering. This combination developed by Blueair provides a high Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) with whisper-quiet operation and high energy efficiency. In fact, a Blueair air purifier works so quietly that not only is it easy to sleep next to it, but there are times when you need to look closely to know if it is on at all. What's more, a Blueair air purifier consumes less power than a small lightbulb at its lowest operating level, but still achieves a filtration efficiency of 99.7% on airborne particles down to a minimum size of 0.1 microns.
 
Reduce exposure to toxic chemicals
In addition to using an air purifier to remove odors and gases, we also recommend inspecting the entire home environment to determine which products may be emitting VOCs. For more information on potentially hazardous products, refer to the associated Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), which you can obtain from the product manufacturers. This will give you full information about the products you bring into your home and how they are used safely.