If you have been concerned about wildfires and the smoke they create lately, you are not alone. California and the western United States are experiencing an increasing number of smoky days each year and this year’s wildfires have even caused smoky pollution on the east coast — a disturbing trend that makes good air quality seem more and more like a luxury.
Giving your home a fresh coat? Learn about the pitfalls of painting, and learn how to avoid exposure to volatile organic compounds that can cause long-term and short-term health concerns. Plus, find seven nature ways to remove paint smells from your home.
No. They do not remove carbon dioxide (CO2). Almost all air purifiers are designed to capture some combination of particles and toxic gasses, but CO2 can’t be captured by the same filters that capture other gaseous air pollution. Only ventilation removes CO2.
Molekule is happy to announce upgraded firmware for Air Pro that activates carbon dioxide, relative humidity, and VOC monitoring that pairs with an upgraded app that communicates air quality with a single score. Our hope is that this will give the public one more perspective on what is in their air.
The smells we associate with newness and cleanliness — a fresh coat of paint, a new car, lemon-scented disinfectant — are not as harmless as they may seem. These odors are caused by the release of gases called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and they come from more sources than you might expect. When these gases build up in indoor air, some of them can contribute to a wide range of health problems.
... Individual molecules of gaseous substances cannot be detected by a particle counter, they are just too small to trigger the detector. So while the particle-counting approach certainly tells us something about the quality of the air, it is definitely not the whole story.
Acetone is relatively harmless to the environment, as UV light from the sun destroys it in a few weeks and it can be consumed by microorganisms in soil. But this is not to say that it is safe to dump it on the ground—at very high concentrations acetone can still kill living things.
Exposure to toluene, even in the short term, can lead to serious health issues. Fortunately, the PECO technology in Molekule not only removes it from the air, but destroys it completely.
Formaldehyde that comes into our homes from industrially produced products is a dangerous and potentially deadly substance. Testing has shown that Molekule removes formaldehyde from the air that passes through the device, making it a great choice to keep your and your family’s lungs safe from this harmful toxin.
Trying to remove VOC sources from your home may seem overwhelming at first, but the effort is worth it to protect your children and yourself from harmful emissions. Once you learn which common household items are exposing your children to VOCs, it becomes much easier to make the right decisions to maintain the air quality of your home.