Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

When smoke from the Canadian wildfires wafted down over the Eastern seaboard.

Air pollution in the Lehigh Valley surged.

People, especially those with asthma, COPD and other lung ailments, were advised to stay indoors and use air purifiers and other remedies for improving air quality within the home or office.

At the time, air purifiers flew off store shelves and they were tough to find.

The wildfire smoke is gone for now, but air quality still is a concern to us.

If you're wondering what to look for in an air purifier or other methods for improving air around you.

Our own Grover Silcox is here with some tips.

Grover, always great to see you.

Great to be here, Brittney.

All right.

So you have some tips for us to make our air just a little bit cleaner.

Yeah, right.

You know, I too, certainly as an asthmatic myself, shuddered to look at the kitchen window and see that smoky haze coming down from the Canadian wildfire.

It was.

And so, you know, I was staying indoors as other people with respiratory conditions, but everyone was advised to stay indoors at that time, keep the air purifiers on, the air conditioners on and try to mitigate the unhealthy effects of that.

Absolutely.

I'm glad it's kind of dissipated a little bit, although the air quality isn't great here in the Lehigh Valley still That has cleared.

But air pollution still poses a threat.

And I spoke with pulmonologist Dr. Joseph Schellenberg of the Lehigh Valley Health Network about air quality, its effects on our health and how we can mitigate high levels of air pollution indoors and within our homes and offices.

So we had a lot of good things to say.

He did.

Now, according to the American Lung Association, the Lehigh Valley has some of the worst air pollution in the country as I said, I spoke with the doctor about climate, air quality and how it affects our health and how air purifiers and air conditioners and other strategies can help reduce dangerous levels of indoor allergens and air pollution that wreak havoc on our health.

People rush to purchase air purifiers when smoke from the Canadian wildfires posed a severe health threat in June.

But many shelves were bare.

What we see in patients, according to pulmonologist Dr. Joseph Schellenberg of Lehigh Valley Health Network, using an air purifier, especially for those suffering from respiratory conditions, remains a viable way to filter out pollutants and allergens inside the home.

Pollutants which might trigger symptoms such as wheezing and shortness of breath.

There's a role for filtration systems, different forms of air purifiers.

There's you know, we have sort of house wide, you know, you have your HVAC system, and they're designed usually to have filters.

They should have filters in them to reduce particulate matter.

But HVAC systems generally have limited filtration.

They they're not going to be the most effective at reducing the smallest particle size because they have to allow flow to occur through a large system.

So we start moving into sort of in room air purifiers or HEPA filters.

So HEPA filter blocks, the smallest particles, these particles might come from industrial pollutants, wildfires, motor vehicle exhaust or other combustible sources, or they might be allergens from trees, plants, grass, mold and other natural environments.

And so all these things that pet dander or if it's dust or it's particulate matter from outdoor air coming in, filters will reduce that, though, particularly in people who are susceptible to those particular stimuli.

Some people might need it only when those exposure levels are high.

Some people who choose to have pets in their home despite being known allergic trigger, which of course we love our animals, very people.

Maybe we should be considering more continuous use of these types of devices.

Of course, an air purifier is only as effective as the filter it uses and they will all remove particulate matter to reduce that burden.

As long as you change the filters and you know you're servicing them appropriately, then they'll be helpful.

If not, then obviously they'll lose their effectiveness.

Dr. Schellenberg cautions against using the Ionizer feature on many popular air purifiers.

Not a fan of ionizing air purifiers.

They're trying to use this process to sort of attract particles, particulate matter, and then it will be eventually removed.

But ozone is pro-inflammatory and is potentially harmful to people who are exposed.

So ozone is a no go.

Air purifiers flew off store shelves when the smoke blew down from Canada.

So Dan Jaffe, an atmospheric and environmental chemist from the University of Washington, showed folks on YouTube how to make their own purifier with a box, fan air filter and duct tape.

And this one I've been running for the last three or four days, and you should be able to see that this one is a lot dirtier than the new one.

Professor Jaffe recommends a merv 13 filter available at most home supply stores.

Merv, M-E-R-V is the worldwide standard for air quality.

The higher the Merv number, the smaller the particle it captures.

A Merv 13 will filter a particle between point three and one micron.

A micron is 1/50 the size of a human hair simply duct tape.

A 20 inch merv 13 filter to the back of a 20 inch box fan, making sure the arrows on the filter face toward the fan seal along the sides as best you can to prevent air from escaping.

And there you have it your very own do it yourself box fan air purifier.

Now let's give this baby a whirl.

Professor Jaffe advises using nothing higher than a merv 13 filter as anything higher could strain the fans motor.

Also, the CDC recommends that these be used as a temporary measure and replaced by a company made purifier.

When available.

And that's essentially a way of moving air from one point to another point through a filter, when every time when you can get anything else and you were susceptible, that it was nice to be able to cobble together something that might help reduce the burden of that particulate matter for that individual person.

Dr. Schellenberg advises patients to check the air quality index daily.

It's usually listed on weather apps and reports good quality air registered at less than 70.

A look at the weather report.

But then scroll on down to the air quality index.

And if it's a really bad air quality index day, you should probably limit outdoor exposure.

If you particularly if you have more severe forms of lung disease.

That concept here is anything we can do to sort of breathe better is going to make us feel better and hopefully enjoy a happy ability to do the things that we want to do.

According to public health experts, the Lehigh Valley is geographically prone to retaining air pollutants and allergens.

In addition, the Valley has grown into a major warehousing hub, which has increased truck traffic and the subsequent exhaust and pollution that comes with it.

Those are just two factors affecting our regional air quality.

So, Grover, I guess air quality is just as much a public health issue as it is a personal issue.

It really is.

And it behooves all of us really to pay attention to air quality and the health effects of it, and which will help us then help support and promote legislation and community efforts to improve it.

Hopefully, we don't have to live through that smoky era that we lived through last summer.

Yeah, hopefully.

Exactly.

In the meantime, we can use the technology that's available and the strategies that are provided to reduce the air pollution in our homes, our offices, and maybe we can even make our own air purifier.

Yeah, get a little creative.

That's right.

Awesome.

Grover, thank you so much as always.

You're welcom And that'll do it for this edition of Living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.