Closeup hand holding lighted cigarrette in private area.
It used to be something that was fairly common a few decades ago – you’d walk into a restaurant or public building, or further back, even a hospital, and you’d get a whiff of tobacco products, if not a whole face full of smoke.
Over the intervening years, people started to take that warning by the attorney general on a pack of cigarettes more seriously. As more of the population learned more about the dangers of secondhand cigarette smoke, nearly all public places became smoke-free. Today, it’s hard to find a place where you can still smoke indoors.
One of the holdouts, though, is housing, where people who own their homes can smoke freely inside the building, and renters may disobey stated lease terms about cigarette or cigar smoking.
As for the effects, there’s the health hazard caused by the smoke. The American Lung Association estimates that a staggering 44% – 53% of all multi-unit apartment or condominium dwellers have experienced secondhand smoke seeping into their homes!
But also, after the smoke is gone, particles and VOCs can still linger, coming out of materials that have absorbed them over time. Experts consider this to be something of an ongoing risk, especially for children.
That leads those responsible for turning over these buildings to wonder – how do you get rid of the lingering effects of smoking inside a building? (Spoiler alert – air purifiers can come in handy.)
Smoke and Smell
First of all, there are two different questions here – it’s one thing to get rid of the actual smoke and particles in the air inside a building. It’s another thing to completely remove an entrenched odor, where a lot of the microscopic particles are in the walls or building materials.
However, many property managers, and owners have found they can do a lot with an air purifier that can clean contaminants from the indoor air, and even ameliorate a lot of the odor associated with smoking, especially if that smoking has occurred fairly recently.
Three Tips: Best Types of Air Purifiers for Cigar and Cigarette Smoke
If you are trying to deal with the active effects of cigarette or cigar smoke inside of a building, take a look at these three recommendations to get the most effective models for this purpose.
Using a HEPA Filter
A modern HEPA filter is extremely effective in getting rid of 99.97% of all small particles in the air, down to a range of .3 µm.
That means that if the air purifier is used directly after smoking, it can greatly decrease the amount of pollution in the air, and get rid of some of the immediate effects of tobacco use.
However, having an air purifier with a HEPA filter is not the silver bullet when it comes to trapping and removing particles from tobacco smoke. In fact, whether you have a medical grade HEPA may matter less than having activated carbon in your system, as it is responsible for reducing the odor and other effects of tobacco smoke.
The Role of Activated Carbon
Activated carbon is a different part of your air purifier system. The carbon has tiny pores that will trap microscopic particles like those in cigar or cigarette smoke.
The key thing to know is that you’ll need a significant amount of activated carbon, and that it’s important to have enough of it to really do remediation well. That’s an important part of system maintenance.
For heavy tobacco pollution, you’re going to need more activated carbon than most standalone units have. However, with the right amount of activated carbon, you can do a lot to reduce the effects of smoke in your building.
Prefilter: A Good Addition
Prefilters designed for smoke are a good bonus because they help to trap the sticky larger particles found in smoke: these are found in the Airpura T700DLX and some Allerair units, for example. A prefilter adds to the overall filtration power of the system, and contributes to catching a wider range of particles that are floating in your indoor air.
Change Filters Appropriately
One of the biggest mistakes that most people make in trying to remediate cigar or cigarette smoke is simply getting an air purifier, running it, and not changing the filter, either because they forget, or because they don’t want to pay for additional filter units.
So finding the right filters and changing them frequently will give you a better chance at getting more of that old smoke smell out of the air.
The Ghosts of Smoke
If you’re looking to really find out how much you can do with an air purifier in this situation, it’s important to remember that it has a lot to do with how much smoking has occurred, when it occurred, and how “dug in” the damage is.
It’s one thing to clear the air after someone had a party or event where someone was smoking in the building. It’s an entirely different challenge to try to remove years of smoke damage that has infiltrated the building materials, including drywall, carpet, wood, and general infrastructure. Those working on these projects may also be able to clear more of the odor by:
- Taking up and replacing old carpeting or other flooring
- Painting walls
- Scrubbing or pressure washing items that have ingrained smoke odor
Another strategy is to get detailed specifications from the manufacturer.
US Air Purifiers LLC can help with good tips and any questions that you may have about your purchase. We know how to advise our customers on what’s just right for a particular need and space, with attention to air changes per hour, an important metric for full cleaning. Ask and get the information that you need to purchase confidently!