Snapshot
Air purifiers are in. But do they really work?
Snapshot
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Ahead of US president Barack Obama’s visit to India early this year, the US embassy in New Delhi bought nearly 1,800 air purifiers. The German embassy recently curtailed its administrative service period from four to three years due to concerns over air quality (indoor and outdoor) in Indian cities. And before you wonder how millions living outside Delhi’s diplomatic enclave survive, ask the booming air purifier industry.
Air purifiers are small devices which clean the air by sucking out pollutants from a room. Costing between Rs 17,000 and Rs 95,000, they claim to be multi-taskers—removing bad odour, ridding a room of pollen or other allergens as well as expelling pollutants. The market for purifiers is growing at a healthy 50 per cent compounded annual growth rate and already amounts a respectable Rs 200 crore.
“Since the third quarter of last year when we launched our purifiers, demand has shot up by over 200 per cent,” says Jayati Singh Chakrobarti, the head of the air purifiers department at market leader Philips. The question though is—does the machine, touted as a revolutionary technology, work?
While its market might be swelling, air purifiers still seem to occupy the same category as faith-based wellness products. Most doctors are still wary. S.P. Rai, a pulmonologist at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital in Mumbai, says he never recommends purifiers. “No study shows that such purifiers work. Manufacturers may come up with as many studies as they like but there are just as many studies, if not more, that rebuff the myth of purifiers,” he says.
Most environmentalists are sceptical too. Research organisations, along with the US federal trade commission, have published studies saying that air purifiers are ineffective. Firms too have left it to consumers’ imagination to figure out how purifiers affect their bodies, by harping on how it affects only the air.
Air purifiers function on the premise that no outside air comes into a room. A study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi stated that when two rooms, one with a purifier and the other without one, were tested, the difference in pollution was less than one per cent. “Air purifiers need to work in a closed room. If you...let outside air come in, they would stop working,” says Avikal Somvanshi of the CSE. Purifiers can easily be compared to ACs, which also work in similar conditions.
Air purifiers use various technologies, among which are HEPA filters, UV-C light and ionic filters. HEPA has long been considered the gold standard for purifier technology. UV-C light emits ozone, a gas that’s an air-pollutant harmful to humans. The fact that most manufacturers claim that the emission is within approved limits does not help if you add it to the ozone already present in our environment.
Not everyone, though, is cynical about the device. Some doctors, including pulmonologists, have adopted a ‘why not’ attitude. Ashsish Jain of Delhi’s Max Hospital says his motto is simple—don’t recommend it, but if a patient wishes to buy it, what’s the harm? “Air purifiers are innocuous. They don’t present any risk to the user,” he says.
For all the rising demand for them, air purifiers are considered to be a luxury. “Not many people actually step out to buy them. At the most, 200 to 300 people will shop for an air purifier a month,” says Suvendu Mazumdar, the national product manager of Sharp International. So, at the end of a day clogged with dust, fumes and grime, all we’re probably left with is a story with some hot air.