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Bacteria and viruses

Bacteria: Not, as some would have it, the back door of a cafeteria, but unicellular organisms. Of the innumerable types of bacteria in the world, some are harmless, even beneficial to the human system - and some are pathogenic; and such pathogenic bateria can cause diseases such as anthrax, cholera and bubonic plague.

Being, as they are, often only a few microns in size, bacteria are often airborne.

Viruses, generally, are smaller than bacteria - any many are between 0.01 and 0.3 microns in diameter. By definition, they require a "host" organism within which to grow or reproduce.

So it stands to reason that if we are attempting to create an environment that limits the spread of bacteria and viruses, we might wish to discover whether certain types of air purifier can help.

And as it turns out, it would appear that they may be able to! Looking at www.iqair.com, the manufacturer's web site for the IQAir HealthPro Plus, for example, we see that the product brochure for the HealthPro Plus (described as "The World's Most Advanced Air Purifier"), states that this purifier captures 99.5% of all bacteria and viruses - using a cleanroom-grade HEPA filter. IQAir says that the HealthPro Plus filters particles smaller than the smallest virus, down to the size of the smallest possible solid particle - beyond which point, there are no more particles only gases!

Another method of removing bacteria and viruses from the air is UV light - and we find UV to be installed in several models of air purifier. UV has been in use in anti-bacterial and anti-viral applications for many years.

So in short, it does appear that certain air purifiers are designed specifically to remove bacteria and viruses from the air.