Even prior to the Circuit Breaker or lockdown period, more people are staying indoors most of the time due to our modern lifestyles. With the pandemic, people are now more aware of airborne transmission of respiratory droplets and are now conscious of air quality. Here in Singapore, the sale of air purifiers surges only during the annual ‘haze’ where the smoke from forest fires in Indonesia blow towards Singapore and Malaysia. However, you should have an air purifier in your home, regardless of the haze or not, and here are 3 reasons why.

1. Modern indoor environments have poor ventilation

Homes, offices and schools have little circulation of fresh air and are often dependent on air-conditioning for ventilation. As such, this makes them a risk-risk setting for the inhalation of viruses and bacteria and therefore, the transmission of diseases such as the flu. Moreover, pollen from outdoors or pet dander may easily trigger one’s allergies due to poor ventilation.

2. Indoor air is more polluted

Did you know that indoor air is 2-5 times more polluted than outdoor air¹ and is often compromised by PM2.5 ultrafine particles, allergens, bacteria, harmful gases as well as air humidity? Numerous forms of indoor air pollution lurk in modern indoor spaces, giving rise to chronic health conditions such as asthma or allergic rhinitis that affects more than 20% of the world’s population today².

3. Unhealthy air can lead to health problems

In Singapore, unhealthy air can lead to asthma which affects 5% of adults and 20% of children³. More than 13.1% of the general population also suffers from eczema and allergic rhinitis⁴, prevalent in 5.5% of the general adult population⁵ and more than 40% of school-going children⁶.

Exposure to allergens and pollutants is recognised as one of the most important risk factors for worsening asthma in children. In modern indoor spaces, allergens, viruses, bacteria and harmful gases may cause respiratory infections. In other cases, these can also result in various allergic symptoms such as sneezing, watery eyes, nasal congestion and runny nose. Atopic diseases, often associated with common allergens, can also have a negative impact on quality of life”

– Dr Benjamin Loh, Resident Doctor, DTAP Clinic Group

Thus, if you already have allergic rhinitis or a sensitive nose, getting an air purifier may help to alleviate your symptoms so that you can breathe easily and prevent further health issues.

Creating a healthy indoor environment

The Philips Air Purifier 3000i Series

Hopefully, you’re convinced to get an air purifier now. But…not all air purifiers are made equal. Look for something such as Philips Air Purifier 2000i, 3000i Series as its filters can remove 99.97% of particles as small as 0.003μm, smaller than the smallest known virus⁷, reducing the levels of Influenza virus aerosols by 99.9% from the air that passes through its filter⁸, creating a healthy and safe home.

What we also like about the Philips Air Purifier 3000i Series is that besides being compact, it purifies rooms up to 104m² and is very quiet at 33-66 dB(A). In other words, it was quieter than our air-conditioner while working hard in a large room. It also has a quiet ‘sleep mode’ and the auto ambient lighting adjusts according to the room’s environment. Talk about a smart product!

Unlike most air purifiers that simply has the on/off button plus maybe a few choices of its speed level, the Philips air purifiers have LED display options that show you real-time air quality at a glance and identify the indoor allergens or harmful gases. In addition, Philips has a Clean Home+app, which allowed us to check the air quality and controlling the machine conveniently from our phone.

Testing out the Philips Air Purifier 3000i Series

We tested the air purifier’s Philips AeraSense technology, which is supposed to continuously monitor the air and sense even the slightest change in indoor quality, purifying a room of 20m² in less than 8 minutes⁹.

Firstly, we blew out a matchstick in a room that is approximately 25m² in size. Within a few seconds, we heard the air purifier’s speed increase and the LED display showed that the particle level increased from 1 to 4. Within 5 minutes, it gradually went back down to its quiet state and at Level 1 (healthy air quality).

Something that we like to do at The Wellness Insider is to diffuse essential oil…and unbeknownst to us, it would trigger the air purifier. Just as we switched the diffuser on, the air purifier seemingly roared to life. The same thing happened when we sprayed any sort of fragrances. Similar to the smoke from our matchstick, the Philips Air Purifier removed all scents within minutes. Yes, the Philips Air Purifier is that sensitive and effective at detecting and removing any air pollutants.

After a week, we vacuumed the room (as usual) and found that there was less dust in the vacuum cleaner’s dust chamber. So, our eyes were not deceiving us when we thought that there were fewer dustballs rolling around.

Overall, we love the Philips Air Purifier! It is an effective solution to creating healthy, clean and pollutant-free air in real-time.

The Philips Air Purifier Series is available at the Philips e-store and at all Philips-authorised retailers. For more information, visit www.philips.com.sg.

References:

¹According to The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EFA)
²Current status of allergy prevalence in Germany, AllergoJ int., 2016
³Asthma & Allergy Association (2020), Asthma. Retrieved from http://aaa.org.sg
⁴Cheok, S., Yee, F., Song Ma, J., Leow, R., Ho, M.S.L.,…Koh, M.J.A. (2018). Prevalence and descriptive epidemiology of atopic dermatitis and its impact on quality of life in Singapore. British Journal of Dermatology, 178(1), 276-277. doi:10.1111/bjd.15587
⁵Ng, T. P., & Tan, W. C. (1994). Epidemiology of chronic (perennial) rhinitis in Singapore: Prevalence estimates, demographic variation and clinical allergic presentation. Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 23(1), 83.
⁶Wright, A. L., Holberg, C. J., Martinez, F. D., Halonen, M., Morgan, W., & Taussig, L. M. (1994). Epidemiology of physician-diagnosed allergic rhinitis in childhood. Pediatrics (Evanston), 94(6) 895.
⁷From the air that passes through the filter, tested with NaCI aerosol by iUTA according to DIN71460 -1.
⁸Microbial Reduction Rate Test conducted at Airmid Healthgroup Ltd. tested in a 28.5m³ test chamber contaminated with airborne influenza A(H1N1). An air purifier by itself does not protect against Covid-19 but can be part of a plan to protect yourself and your family to help ventilation and having clean air (US Environmental Protection Agency).
⁹From the air that passes through the filter, it is a theoretical time for one-time cleaning calculated by dividing its CADR400m³/h by the room size of 48m³ (assuming the room is 20m² in floor area and 2.4m² in height).