Clearing the Air: A No-nonsense Look
at Indoor Air Pollution
By Cheri Boucher

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Everywhere you look today, you will find articles about indoor air pollution, allergies, asthma at pandemic levels, especially among children, elevated levels of colds and flu, and other health issues related to indoor air. Even more confusing is all the advertising about products that supposedly help to clean up the indoor air. As a consumer searching for a “cure” for my own health related issues, I set out on a journey to weed through all the hoopla. So I set out to educate myself, and everyone I came in contact with, on these issues. And what an education I got. While reading all the most recent articles within the previous two years, I came across a book by a best-selling author by the name of Pete Billac entitled, The Silent Killer, a no-nonsense, non-technical guide to indoor air pollution based on “facts compiled from billions of dollars of scientific research ...” But of course, I had to test the researchers’ research, and this is what I learned.

What is indoor air pollution? Years ago, you never heard about indoor air pollution or sick building syndrome. However, with homes and buildings being built to be more energy efficient, we have sealed ourselves indoors with deadly precision. Outgassings from carpeting, synthetics, dyes, furniture, dry cleaning, cleaning products and other things we bring into our homes and buildings, coupled with dust, dust mites, dead skin, mold, mildew and other airborne allergens, are making us and our children sicker at an alarming rate. Need a visual? Take a large iced tea jar and put a Barbie Doll inside. Then throw in some carpet pieces, some cleaning solutions, some paint and varnish, some dog or cat hair, some ammonia (simulates cat urine) a handful of whatever is in your vacuum bag, dry cleaning fluid, etc. Now screw on the cover. How is Barbie supposed to breathe? In essence, this is what we are doing to our children and ourselves by living and working in these airtight, energy-efficient buildings.

The EPA notes that Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors, and even more in cold weather. Indoor pollutants fuel respiratory illnesses like asthma and allergies, and now statistics show that we are at increased risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. Physiologically, children are more vulnerable to the effects of breathing in these particulate and toxic vapors than adults, because of their higher metabolic rate. They require more oxygen, and they breathe in two to three times as much air (and, therefore, toxins) relative to body size than adults. So what’s a gasping and wheezing person to do? Well, we could move outdoors, but that wouldn’t be practical.

As I began looking into products that purport to clean indoor air, I found filters and filtering devices with noisy fans were the most common solution. The only problem with all these products is that the pollution has to go through the solution. And the unsuspecting consumer doesn’t realize that a high percentage of these particles, the ones most damaging to our lungs, are sub-micron in size and pass right through filters. Additionally, filters cannot rid the air of toxins and outgassings. I also checked into the Ionic Breeze® machines by Sharper Image, that so many of my friends had bought, which claims to purify the air. It was very quiet with no fan. No fan, I said? How was all the air going to be drawn through a device that has no fan? Then I saw the October, 2003, issue of Consumer Reports which said that while this machine was, in fact, quiet, it was ineffective in cleaning the air. With most of these devices, you would need one in each room to really benefit, which would run into the thousands of dollars.

Then I found the article in the December, 1996, Money Makers Magazine referred to in Mr. Billac’s book, about a machine that has a technology that cleans the air like Mother Nature, using ionization and activated oxygen, or ozone. Everything the inventor, Bill Converse, said made sense to me about having all of my air cleaned of particles and toxins by sending the solution out to the pollution. So I searched the Internet for this product and was soon contacted by a dealer from EcoQuest International, who allowed me to try this product for a three-day period. Sold! The air inside was as fresh and crisp as the air outside after a thunderstorm. I started sleeping through the night, which hadn’t happened in thirty years, my husband stopped snoring, my 3:00 p.m. headaches disappeared, and I haven’t had a cold or any major illnesses since I installed my Living Air unit. But don’t take my word for it. Research my research if you must. One can hardly argue with Mother Nature.

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Cheri Boucher is an independent distributor for EcoQuest International, spending much of her time educating people on the effects of indoor air pollution and other environmental problems and solutions. For information about this technology or where to get Pete Billac’s book, call 847-726-2035 or toll-free 877-783-3181.

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