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One possible cause for this rise is household pollutants caused by dust, smoke, mites and pets.
Many people buy air purifiers, which are a good way to clean up the air in a room, but they don't deal with dust and other allergens that settle on carpets and soft furnishings.
Running your vacuum cleaner over these can help a lot, but a bad machine will actually make the whole situation worse by picking up these allergens and spreading them around the room.
HEPA filters To avoid the problem of your vacuum cleaner spraying stuff around your room you should look for a cleaner fitted with one of more HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filters.
HEPA filters have to trap a minimum of 99.
97% of particles as small as 0.
3 micrometers.
There are a number of allergens that are close to this size, such as dust mite feces, a known issue for asthma sufferers.
So is any vacuum cleaner fitted with a HEPA filter enough? I'm afraid there's a little more to it than that.
It's important to choose a vacuum cleaner that doesn't allow air to leak around the filter.
I bought a vacuum cleaner a while ago that includes a HEPA filter, only to read a review some months later that showed this model to return a significant proportion of unfiltered air into the room.
My son suffers from asthma and I realised that I was picking up allergens and spraying them around, perhaps affecting his health (note to self "do your research!").
The worst vacuum cleaners can let almost 90% of the air they take in back out again, unfiltered.
What you need to look for are cleaners with sealed HEPA air systems and post-motor filters.
A lot of cleaners do not have this, particularly upright models.
Look out for labels such as "Sealed HEPA" or "True HEPA" as an indication that the manufacturer has done more than just thrown in a filter and trusted to luck.
You may read labels such as "HEPA-like" or similar terms intended to indicate that they are good machines.
Don't be fooled, the filters in these cleaners won't conform to the HEPA standard and won't do as good a job.
They are used because they're cheaper and require less powerful motors to draw the air through.
Motor Power That's another thing you need to look at, is the motor powerful enough? HEPA filters require strong suction to pull the air through due to the much smaller mesh size than a normal filter.
Two-fan models are good for extra suction.
With a good HEPA vacuum cleaner you may well find that you don't need an air purifier at all, and hopefully allergic reactions or asthma attacks will show a decrease with regular use and good maintenance.
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