Air Purifiers for Pet Owners: Know What You Need To Use and Avoid
Owning a pet might be the most wonderful joys of your life. However, right after you brought your, furry friend, home, you notice something strange. All on a sudden out of nowhere you’re getting all these allergic reactions. Now you cannot but wonder whether you are allergic to your furry friend or not.
Allergies to pets are quite common, and anything from our pets could trigger that, like their coat or dander (skin flakes) or even their saliva. You could feel itchy eyes, red and sneezing nose or even hives. Primarily dander is the main cause of allergic reaction.
To deal with this issue, you can use air purifiers that can get rid of the problem. That’s why I’ll be shedding some light on air purifiers for pet owners in this article.
Let’s start!
Different Causes of Pet Allergy
Many elements can cause pet allergies. Check out them below –
- Pet Dander: Pets can collect a lot of dust on their skin. They also shed a lot of dander. Dander is actually the skin flakes that your pet keep shedding. It’s kind of similar to dandruff. If you are allergic to it would mean, you are allergic to the oil from their skin.
- Hair: Sometimes the hair or coat of the pets are responsible for making the owners sick.
- Urine and Saliva: Both of these can contain allergen proteins. If your pet licks you often and you see the immediate reaction after that, you should avoid saliva contact. Moreover, train your pet not to pee on you.
- Dust Bunnies: These are often dust mites that feed off from the pet dander and multiplies and creates more allergic particles.
Dog Allergies and Cat Allergies
In the U.S. over 30% of the populations has some sort of allergic reaction to pets. And comparing cats and dogs, they seem to have a more allergic reaction to cats. The possible reason for this can be the grooming process of cats. Cats tend to groom themselves more and expose more saliva content on their skin. So, when you touch them, you’ll have an allergic reaction.
Both dogs and cats have different type of allergic protein secretion. So, you might not be allergic to both kinds if you are allergic to one of them from the start.
Mostly the dander stays in the air for a long time. If you inhale, it might cause you to have sudden allergic reactions.
Even though they are small, but air purifiers can pick them up and filter the air. However, it could vary from device to device.
Can Air Purifier Really Help?
It depends on the technology mostly, but if the air purifier uses powerful filtration, it might be able to get most of the particles out and give you a breathable air.
Different Filtration Technologies and Their Efficiency
- HEPA Filters
Filters that comes with HEPA can remove harmful particles up to 99.97%. But to remove the particles, they need to be 0.3 micrometers in size. That’s why when it comes to air purifying it can take care of the larger particles such as dust mites, pet dander, and airborne dust. If your pet shed a lot of hair, it can take care of those too.
However, sometimes the dander can break odd due to exposure to saliva or other reasons. For those cases, HEPA filters won’t be able to help you out. If you inhale those particles, they could cause you to have a bad reaction.
- Ionizers
These air purifiers might seem like a great choice, but ultimately they aren’t much effective. Typically, these filters try to attach a small amount of charge to the pollutants that pass the device by. Those pollutants would then stick to any wall or furniture.
But the problem is the radius of the device is very limited. It doesn’t come with any fan so practically it can’t suck in the particles and ionize them. So, you are left with a lot of air space that isn’t purified.
Also, the dander that would get stuck on the wall or floor can re-float in the air if it gets disturbed. Usually, walking could cause it to loosen up. Moreover, ionizing air purifiers produce ozone, which is a harmful chemical.
- Carbon Air Filters
These filters are basically designed to remove a certain type of gas from the air. However, they can’t detect particles of any sort. So, you won’t be able to get any kind of help from this filter. However, you could use these filters to get rid of pet odors.
- PECO Filter
Usually, the traditional filters can remove larger particles from the air. But smaller particles that break off from the dander can easily bypass the system. Traditional purifiers would not be able to catch any of these, leaving you an unfiltered air to breathe in.
However, a new technology called Photo Electrochemical Oxidation or PECO is somewhat different in this case. It offers two stages of filtrations. In the first stage, the filter would get rid of the big particles and hairs floating in the air. On the second stage, it will remove the smaller particles giving you a dander free zone.
What Air Purifier Could Be The Best Solution?
It depends on partly how you keep your pets clean. If you keep them clean and ensure that they shed less dander, it could mean that using traditional air purifiers can help you seal the deal. HEPA filters can be of bog help then, as the chance of getting smaller particles would be relatively small.
However, they leave the possibility to have some particles left in the air. And if you are highly sensitive, that small amount could make you sick.
On the other hand, PECO technology seems to be a nice fit for this purpose. They offer more filtrations process and can get rid of the smallest particles from the air. In the end, the decision is up to you whether you should go for HEPA or PECO or even look for other better solutions.
Final Words
Pet allergy is not a joke. If you have pet allergies, no matter how much you love your furry friend you should ask for expert help. Consult with the vet or your doctor to deal with the situation. If you think that it’s not much a deal and let it make you sick, it might make the allergy worse.
Using air purifiers could help out in this case, and there are plenty of air purifiers for pet owners on the market. Try them out and live a healthy allergy-free life with your pet.
