i spent it At a cabin in Maine last summer. There, I continued to review gear for WIRED. I tested air purifiers, food dehydratorAnd indoor air quality monitorI tracked outdoor air quality, monitored indoor air, and watched the numbers climb in their predictable patterns as I used the stove.
A few weeks into my air quality cabin experiment, I noticed a strange increase in PM 2.5 for no apparent reason. PM 2.5 are invisible particles that can enter the deepest parts of the lungs and then into the bloodstream. They contribute to negative health outcomes such as heart attacks, high blood pressure and respiratory problems. I was not cooking; I had not done anything. PM 2.5 numbers published on various air quality monitors ranged from 4 to 24 to 75 or more. My air purifier's internal sensors, some using the same technology as my air quality monitor – a tiny chamber where a beam of light picks up particles, even the invisible PM 2.5 – automatically turn on its fans. Turns it on. And all I did was walk across the room.
It was the rug!
The first time I heard about the dangers of household rugs and carpets Air pollution researcher Shelley Miller at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who I interviewed for my first story on air quality; Namely, how to get good air in my 100-year-old Brooklyn apartment. Miller was the person who introduced me to the term Resuspension. Resuspension is exactly what it sounds like: Dust and particles in carpets are blown away by the sound of footsteps. The same thing happens with upholstery. Lean over the sofa and you may see a cloud of dust. I have an air quality monitor next to my bed, and I've noticed an increase in PM 2.5 when I move my blanket over my quilt. We dust, vacuum and wash clothes not just for aesthetics; It's also for our health, and more precisely, our hearts.
Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro
it's in the cloud
I had forgotten about resuspension and had slipped the rule inside the cabin without my shoes. By the time I caught up, I'd taken two carpets out for a good old fashioned sweeping. Huge clouds of dust flew into the air. I brought my six year old child HEPA-Filtered Dyson Stick Vacuum With me, but I finally laid out my rugs, put them away, and decided to sweep and mop the hardwood floors instead. My indoor air quality improved.
I reached out to the indoor air quality researcher andrea ferro of Clarkson University and asked them how to air-clean the scourge from carpets. He explains that HEPA air filters are perfect for this task: “We recirculate dust all the time. It is a normal component of indoor air.” When I asked how high the dust rises, she told me, “Resuspended dust easily rises to breathing heights and can be mixed into all the air in the room.” And it's not just about staying clean. There are health benefits—cardioprotective benefits that come with good air.
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 bad indoor air, he mentioned one. Study He worked on New York City public housing with the aim of measuring the health benefits of good air. And indoor PM 2.5—resuspended or otherwise—is something that HEPA filters can clean. Dr. Newman reported that air purifiers “appear to reduce blood pressure by about 3 to 4 mmHg over different time periods.” And while reducing one's blood pressure by three points may seem like a small number, Dr. Newman proposed looking at it in the context of how we improve our health through diet. Reducing one's indoor PM 2.5 “is also what we see with dietary approaches to reducing sodium and blood pressure.”