Using portable air cleaners, also known as air purifiers, in homes is gaining popularity in the time of pandemic. They could be suitable when additional ventilation for outdoor air is not possible without compromising indoor comfort or when outdoor air pollution is high, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Along with the use of best practices recommended by the Department of Health and World Health Organization, filtration could be part of a plan to protect people indoors.

Air cleaners assume more relevance as Jose-Luis Jimenez, a fellow of the American Association for Aerosol Research and the American Geophysical Union, together with 239 scientists, believed that a substantial share of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases occur from transmission through aerosols. In a Time article, Jimenez wrote that “superspreading events, where one person infects many, occur almost exclusively in indoor locations and are driving the pandemic.”