New research discovers pollution gases becoming particles in greater numbers than thought.

A rarely mentioned class of air pollution particles known as “secondary organic aerosols” (SOAs) has more mass and is more dangerous than previously understood. That’s the conclusion of a new study released yesterday by scientists at the University of California, Irvine. The new research is causing top air-quality officials to question whether their current pollution-control strategies are effective. It’s left some wondering exactly how clean the air in urban areas is – or isn’t. “If the authors’ analysis is correct, the public is now facing a false sense of security in knowing whether the air they breathe is indeed safe,” Bill Becker, the head of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA), told the New York Times. NACAA is the nation’s leading association of air-quality management agencies.

If you are already using a high-efficiency air purifier, take some comfort in knowing your mechanical filtration system is theoretically stopping these aerosol particles as effectively as it stops other particles of the same size in the air. What makes secondary aerosol particles, formed by the interaction of pollutants and natural chemical compounds, unique is they can be as much as 10 times denser than ordinary pollution particles. Previously, the tiny aerosol droplets were thought to dissipate quickly through evaporation. But the new research describes gases that essentially convert to particles and then remain particles.

“They check in and they can’t check out,” lead researcher and chemist Barbara Finlayson-Pitts told the Orange County Record. The effect of these secondary pollution particles helps explain why many computers provide a large underestimate of smog-particle masses.

Air purifiers that are effective against pollution particles are not necessarily effective against gases, although systems such as the IQAir HealthPro Plus include separate filtration media for particles and gases. Gases are generally tinier than particles and effective filtration requires an air purifier with a specialized filtration medium such as activated carbon. The research on SOAs was conducted at the University of California, Irvine, by a team of researchers known as “AirUCI.” Scientists at AirUCI study a variety of air-quality topics, including the effectiveness of indoor air purifiers on air quality. To conduct the current study, the researchers mingled pinene, an organic gas found in Pine-Sol and other household cleaners, with nitrogen oxides and ozone, a known lung irritant.

This online publication is brought to you by IQAir North America, Inc., based in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. IQAir North America is a member of the Swiss-based IQAir Group that develops, manufactures and markets innovative air purifiers and air quality products for indoor environments around the globe. IQAir is the exclusive educational partner of the American Lung Association for the air purifier industry.

Can an air purifier make your smarter? Well, at the very least it might help protect whatever smarts you already have by reducing your exposure to particle air pollution. That’s inference that might be drawn from a study published this week examining the effects of particulate air pollution on the cognitive health of older women.

A new study links particle ar pollution with cognitive loss.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, found that women who were exposed to elevated levels of particle air pollution over a long term experienced measurable declines in cognitive function. The link was found at levels of exposure to pollution typical in many urban areas in the United States. Although the research team did not pinpoint exactly how air pollution might cause decreased brain functionality, they speculated it may be related to air pollution’s association with cardiovascular risk. “Exposure to particulate air pollution is associated with cardiovascular risk, which itself may play a role in causing or accelerating cognitive decline,” the Rush University Medical Center press release said.

The study said if the findings can be corroborated in other studies there may be an opportunity for intervention through public policy. “If our findings are confirmed in other research, air pollution reduction is a potential means for reducing future population border of age-related cognitive decline, and eventually, dementia,” said the study author, Jennifer Weuve, an assistant professor at the Rush Institute of Healthy Aging.

Corroboration of the research could add another reason for those who live in areas with elevated levels of pollution to consider purchasing a high-efficiency air purifier. IQAir’s air purifiers with HyperHEPA filtration, for example, remove more than 99.97% of particle air pollution in the air inside a home or office. Government health agencies recommend source reduction and ventilation, along with air purification, as a three-tiered approach to combating the effects of air pollution.

The Rush University Medical Center study on air pollution and cognitive function joins a pair of other particle air pollution studies released in the past few days. One, conducted in Boston, found that even brief increases in traffic-related air pollution increases a person’s risk of a stroke. The other study, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, links particle air pollution to an increase in the short-term risk of a heart attack.

This online publication is brought to you by IQAir North America, Inc., based in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. IQAir North America is a member of the Swiss-based IQAir Group that develops, manufactures and markets innovative air purifiers and air quality products for indoor environments around the globe. IQAir is the exclusive educational partner of the American Lung Association for the air purifier industry.

Particle air pollution causes more than 100,000 premature deaths in the U.S. each year.

How important is it to have a high-efficiency air purifier at home? Consider this: A study published last month by the Society for Risk Analysis concludes that particle and ozone air pollution cause more premature deaths every year in the U.S. than do accidents. Or Alzheimer’s. Or influenza. More than 100,000 premature deaths every year in the U.S. are caused by outdoor particle air pollution, according to the study. And ozone pollution adds tens of thousands of additional premature deaths to that number, the study concludes.

The regions with the highest levels of premature deaths from air pollution are probably no surprise: the northeastern United States, the industrial Midwest, and Southern California. The assessment concluded that in Los Angeles fully 10 percent of premature deaths are attributable to air pollution. Other air-pollution impacts: 200,000 nonfatal acute myocardial infarctions related to particle pollution, tens of thousands of hospitalizations and emergency department visits, and hundreds of thousands of particle-pollution-caused cases of acute bronchitis. An acute myocardial infarction, by the way, is also known as a heart attack.

There is some good news: The study was based on levels of particulates and ozone from 2005. Since then, there have been modest improvements in air pollution levels in most regions of the United States. On the other hand, using alternate methods of risk assessment the study concluded that annual premature deaths in the U.S. from particulate air pollution may actually be as high as 320,000 per year.

Of course, outdoor pollution becomes indoor pollution. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says indoor air pollution levels are typically 2-5 times higher than outdoors. The agency recognizes three strategies for combating indoor air pollution: The first two are source reduction and ventilation. But how do you achieve source reduction and ventilation with clean air when the air outdoors is dirty? The answer is to use a high-efficiency air purifier to clean the air indoors. And the latest study from the Society for Risk Analysis adds new urgency to the issue when so many lives are at risk.

The study, “Estimating the National Public Health Burden Associated with Exposure to Ambient PM 2.5 and Ozone,” was authored by a team of researchers at the U.S. EPA.

This online publication is brought to you by IQAir North America, Inc., based in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. IQAir North America is a member of the Swiss-based IQAir Group that develops, manufactures and markets innovative air purifiers and air quality products for indoor environments around the globe. IQAir is the exclusive educational partner of the American Lung Association for the air purifier industry.

Average cost of asthma: $4,063 in one California community.

If you’re on the fence about buying an air purifier because of cost, and you or someone in your home has asthma, here’s something to consider: The total annual costs resulting from a “typical” case of childhood asthma add up to $4,063 per year, at least in Riverside, Calif. That’s the conclusion of credible new research conducted by a team of economists. The annual figure includes medical costs as well as indirect costs such as asthma-related school absences. When kids miss school, parents and caregivers miss work, adding to the costs. In comparison, an air purifier, even the world’s best air purifier (the IQAir HealthPro Plus), costs only a fraction of what asthma can cost in a single year.

The newest study was conducted in Long Beach, Calif., and Riverside, both cities with elevated levels of air pollution and many freeways that are near the places where people live. The researchers were able to count cases related specifically to traffic air pollution, and concluded that almost half of all new asthma cases are the result of traffic-related pollution. They also concluded that each episode of bronchitic symptoms  (daily cough, congestion or phlegm, or bronchitis for three months in a row) cost over $900.

The research was led by Sylvia Brandt, Ph.D., a resource economist from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of Basel, Switzerland. The results were published last week in the online publication, “European Respiratory Journal.”

Brandt is also involved in research that focuses on cross-cultural willingness to pay for children’s health. “Questions of environmental policy often become questions about money: money for healthcare programs, money to retrofit polluting factories, etc.,” she says in her official biography. “Families with children who have asthma are bearing a high cost,” Brandt said in announcing the results of the new study. She pointed out that the asthma costs identified in the Long Beach and Riverside families she studied represent about 7 percent of median household income in those communities. She noted that health care costs higher than 5 percent of a family’s income are considered to be unsustainable.

This online publication is brought to you by IQAir North America, Inc., based in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. IQAir North America is a member of the Swiss-based IQAir Group that develops, manufactures and markets innovative air purifiers and air quality products for indoor environments around the globe. IQAir is the exclusive educational partner of the American Lung Association for the air purifier industry.