Asbestos are extremely dangerous and cause cancer. Can air purifiers remove asbestos from the air and make your home safer?
To know how effective air purifiers are at removing asbestos from the air, we first need to know whether asbestos is solid or gas. HEPA purifiers capture particles, not gases. It turns out asbestos is solid, so we’re off to a good start!
How Big Are Asbestos Particles?
Asbestos particles range from 0.7 to 90 microns. Luckily HEPA filters capture over 99% of all particle sizes (even the smallest particles) 0.3 microns, so they should capture plenty of asbestos.
The graph below shows the hardest sized particle for a HEPA air purifier to filter is around .3 microns. Even though these sized particles are the hardest to filter out, HEPA filters still capture ~99.7% of them!
Can a HEPA Filter Remove Asbestos From the Air?
The hardest size of particle for HEPA filters to capture is right around 0.3 microns. Above and below that, it’s actually easier to capture particles. For example, researchers shot virus particles down to .05 microns at HEPA filters. The HEPA captured over 99.9%. Therefore a HEPA filter is extremely good at removing asbestos particles from the air.
Watch: Air Purifier vs. Tiny Particles
In the video below, the team at Smart Air set up a Sqair HEPA air purifier in a box with smoke particles. Smoke particles are typically in the range of 0.1 to 1.5 microns, even smaller than the average asbestos particle. Within minutes, the Sqair HEPA filter trapped all of the smoke particles with ease. Considering particle size, the Sqair would do an even better job at removing asbestos from the air.
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How to Choose the Best Air Purifier for Asbestos Removal?
By far the most effective air purifier for asbestos removal is a HEPA air purifier (as shown above). But unfortunately, it can be difficult to know what air purifier is the best. At Smart Air, we created a guide to help you choose the most effective air purifier at the best price.
Read More: 4 Steps to Choosing the Best Air Purifier
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According to Wikipedia, one of the asbestos types are in the range of 0.1 – 10 microns long. I believe the thickness is much less.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos
Have there been any studies on how effective Hepa filters for consumer air purifiers are for these fibers? I’m thinking since they aren’t uniform particles.