Air purifiers not effective in protecting against viral infections: Study

Technologies like air filtration germicidal lights and ionisers are not effective in warding off risk of viral infections finds a studyResearchers from the University of East Anglia UEA looked at all the available evidence but found little to support hopes that these technologies can make air safe from respiratory or gastrointestinal infectionsldquoAir cleaners are designed to filter pollutants or contaminants out of the air that passes through themrdquo said Prof Paul Hunter from UEArsquos Norwich Medical SchoolldquoWhen the Covid pandemic hit many large companies and governments including the NHS the British military and New York City and regional German governments investigated installing this type of technology in a bid to reduce airborne virus particles in buildings and small spacesldquoBut air treatment technologies can be expensive So itrsquos reasonable to weigh up the benefits against costs and to understand the current capabilities of such technologiesrdquo Hunter saidIn the paper published in Preventive Medicine the team studied evidence about whether air cleaning technologies make people safe from catching airborne respiratory or gastrointestinal infectionsThey analysed evidence about microbial infections or symptoms in people exposed or not to air treatment technologies in 32 studies all conducted in real world settings like schools or care homes So far none of the studies of air treatment started during the Covid era have been publishedldquoThe kinds of technologies that we considered included filtration germicidal lights ionisers and any other way of safely removing viruses or deactivating them in breathable airrdquo said lead researcher Dr Julii Brainard also from UEArsquos Norwich Medical SchoolldquoIn short we found no strong evidence that air treatment technologies are likely to protect people in real world settingsrdquo she saidThere is a lot of existing evidence that environmental and surface contamination can be reduced by several air treatment strategies especially germicidal lights and high efficiency particulate air filtration HEPA But ldquothis evidence seems biassed and imbalancedrdquoldquoWe strongly suspect that there were some relevant studies with very minor or no effect but these were never publishedrdquo Brainard said ldquoOur findings are disappointing but it is vital that public health decision makers have a full pictureThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever