I spent this last summer in a cottage in Maine. There, I continued to review WIRED gear. I tested air purifiers, dehumidifiers, and indoor air quality monitors. I kept track of outdoor air quality, monitored indoor air, and watched the numbers rise in their predictable pattern when I used the stove.
A few weeks into my air quality cabin test, I noticed strange spikes in PM 2.5 for seemingly no reason. PM 2.5 are those invisible particles that can enter the deep parts of the lungs and then enter the bloodstream. They contribute to negative health outcomes such as heart attacks, high blood pressure, and respiratory issues, to name a few. I wasn’t cooking; I had done nothing. The numbers of PM 2.5, measured in various air quality monitors, increased from 4 to 24 to 75 or more. My air purifiers’ internal sensors, some using the same technology that monitors my air quality—a small chamber where scattered light picks up particles, even invisible PM 2.5—automatically move their fans. And all I did was walk across the room.
It was a dress!
The first time I heard about the dangers of indoor rugs and carpets was from air pollution researcher Shelly Miller at the University of Colorado at Boulder, with whom I discussed my first story about air quality; namely, how to get good ventilation in my 100-year-old Brooklyn apartment. Miller was the one who would be silent on this word re-establishment. Resuspension is exactly what it sounds like: Dust and particles on carpets fly when steps are taken. The same thing happens with upholstery. When he went to fall on the sofa, he saw the dust was smoking. I have an air quality monitor next to my bed, and I’ve seen an uptick in PM 2.5 when I move my weighted blanket over my duvet. We dust, clean and wash clothes not just for beauty; and it belongs to our lives, and obviously, our hearts.
Photo: Lisa Wood Shapiro
It’s in the clouds
I had forgotten about being stopped and let my no-shoes-inside rule slip into the bathroom. By the time I connected, I had taken two carpets outside to sweep the old ones. Great dust flew into the air. I had my six-year-old HEPA-filtered Dyson stick vacuum with me, but I finally rolled up my rugs, put them away, and opted to sweep and mop the wood floor. My indoor air quality has improved.
I contacted indoor air quality researcher Andrea Ferro of Clarkson University and asked her about how to remove air from the carpeting tree. He pointed out that the HEPA air filters are up to the job: “We stop dust all the time. It is a normal part of the atmosphere in the house.” When I asked how high the dust gets, he told me, “Suspended dust easily reaches breathing height and mixes with the air in the room.” And this is not just that you are neat. There are health benefits—cardioprotective benefits associated with good ventilation.
When I first told Jonathan Newman, director of Clinical Research at the Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at NYU Langone Health, about my poor indoor air quality, he mentioned a study he was working on in public housing in New York City aimed at measuring the health benefits. of good spirit. And indoor PM 2.5—resuspended or otherwise—is something HEPA filters can clean. Dr. Newman showed that air fresheners “seem to reduce blood pressure by about 3 to 4 mmHg over various periods of time.” And while lowering a person’s blood pressure by three points may seem like a small amount, Dr. Newman offered a vision of how we improve our health through food. Lower one indoor PM 2.5 “is also about what we’re seeing in dietary ways to lower sodium and blood pressure.”
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