Dry indoor air causes a wide variety of physical symptoms including a stuffy nose, dry cough, nosebleeds, dry skin and brittle hair. A warm mist humidifier will relieve these symptoms and help you sleep better. Dry air is common when the heat is turned on in the winter. If you live in a dry climate, you may need to humidify your home all year long. Excessive dryness causes wood furniture and flooring to crack and warp. Houseplants can dry out and the seams of your wallpaper could peel.

If your home is very dry and you need to add moisture to the air all year long, you may want to consider a whole house humidification system. These are installed on a forced air heating system and should be installed by a professional.

Humidifiers get a lot of use in baby nurseries. When baby is having a breathing problem due to illness, improving and moisturizing the air will help him/her breathe easier. But, humidifiers are not just for baby.

Very simply, a humidifier puts moisture into the air. This moist air makes it easier for anyone who suffers with allergies, asthma, sinus headaches or swollen nasal passages to breathe. Humidifiers also help prevent dry skin and hair and static electricity in the winter time when the heat is on in the home. Humidifiers can also be beneficial for the home by preventing over drying of wood, peeling of wallpaper, and preventing cracks in drywall and plaster.

By JIM ROONEY, For The Capital
Q. I value your opinion very much and need it for the debate that is presently going on with my parents. It is about how necessary it is to have a humidifier on the gas furnace in our house. They say it is not but I say it is as necessary as the furnace itself. We used to have one back in the 1970s and '80s. The house felt so much better in winter. That humidifier is still attached but not working because it just stopped working and needed too much maintenance. We now have problems with our sinuses and dry eyes. It never seems to feel warm enough even though the thermostat is set at 75 degrees. Are there humidifiers that don't need as much maintenance and do we actually need one? Are they expensive to run and which one is best?

Considering the amount of irritants that are present in the air today, those who suffer from allergies and other breathing disorders are challenged to find effective ways to clean the air that they breathe within their home environment.

Not so many years ago, this simply meant making sure that the house was dusted regularly and that pets were bathed and brushed outdoors as often as possible, in order to cut down on the most common allergy inducing factors. Today, there's far more at stake, when we consider the types of contaminants that are present in our environment as a result of pollution. Bigger challenges, then, require better tools for providing a solution enter, the air purifier.

Thane International Inc., of La Quinta, Calif., is voluntarilly recalling about 35,00 of its Perfect Air Ultra Air Purifiers.

Made by China`s Well Brain International Ltd., an overheating capacitor in these air purifiers can cause arcing in a connecting wire which poses the risk of fire.

Thane has received six reports of incidents involving these air purifiers catching on fire or melting. Thane has also received six units which were returned by customers and show some evidence of melting or charring. No injuries have been reported.

Consumers should call Thane toll-free at (800) 895-0986 to get a credit for other Thane products of comparable value.

Growing concerns about bird flu and overall health awareness are proving a windfall for existing air-purifier makers that aim to double their sales while new players are entering the market. Toshiba (Thailand) Co, recently took back its air-purifier distribution from Carrier (Thailand) Co. Sangchai Air Quality Co is widening its distribution of Honeywell products to the provinces while York Airconditioning and Refrigerating (Thailand) Co is introducing purifiers locally for the first time.

All of them are challenging the direct-sales company Amway, which leads the air-purifier market.

Nattaphong Areekul, vice-president of Toshiba Thailand, said the company had planned various marketing activities to build brand awareness of its air-purifiers, with a budget of 50 million baht.

Source: Research and Markets

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Household Appliances in the United States Volume 4: Air Treatment to their offering.

The $1.4 billion air treatment appliance market includes room air conditioners, portable heaters, air cleaners, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers. This report covers the period from 1999 through February 2005. While the market fluctuates significantly due to weather conditions, overall sales have been decreasing since 1999, due in large part to the increased penetration of central air conditioning units, as room air conditioners account for 67% of the air treatment appliance market.

Source: BUSINESS WIRE

The new Consumer Reports press release (dated Sept. 6, 2005) being distributed to journalists acknowledges that the Sharper Image Ionic Breeze tested by Consumer Reports is not the current model sold in our catalog, web site or retail stores. As of July 7, 2005, Sharper Image introduced an upgraded and improved model, a practice consistent with previous improvements.(1)

As Consumer Reports acknowledges in both its press release and in its October 2005 magazine story on air cleaners, the new Ionic Breeze air purifier is now equipped with OzoneGuard, which converts ozone by-product and ozone in ambient air into pure oxygen on contact. No other indoor air purifier offers technology which can reduce ozone in ambient air by converting it into pure oxygen. With OzoneGuard, the Ionic Breeze air purifier is comparable to those listed among Consumer Reports' "fine performers, with negligible ozone." Even without OzoneGuard, the Ionic Breeze carries both the UL and ETL seals of performance for safe ozone emission levels.

Source: U.S. Newswire

4/4/2005

YONKERS, N.Y. April 4 /U.S. Newswire/ —- The May issue of Consumer Reports (CR) presents new concerns about ionizing air cleaners: among five models that did a poor job of cleaning the air, several can expose users to potentially harmful ozone levels. Months of unbiased testing and expert investigation demonstrate why the five ionizing models with poor performance, including those with relatively high ozone generation, are "Not Recommended".

Ozone from ionizing air cleaners is a growing concern as sales increase. People with asthma or respiratory allergies are especially sensitive to indoor ozone, an irritant that can worsen asthma, deaden sense of smell, raise sensitivity to pollen and mold, and may cause permanent lung damage.

Source: Global Direct Services

You Need an Air Purifier for Allergen, Virus, Odor and Gas Control.

Your choice of air purifier depends on what you are trying to achieve. For instance, if your main
goal is to clear the air of allergens, you should choose an air purifier which would remove the large particulates such as pollen with a pre-filter, but also smaller allergens, which would be particulates from 0.3 to 5 microns in size. An air purifier with a pre-filter can remove smaller allergens which include mold, bacteria, animal dander, fumes, and house dust mite allergens. A Hepa filter air purifier would trap particulates of this size and remove them from the air in your room. However, it is important to note that more than 90% of all particulates are 0.3 of a micron and smaller in size.