How efficient are Covid 19 air purifiers in 2022?

Since the end of January 2020, the coronavirus has disrupted the world’s everyday life. From the stupefaction of the first lockdown to the spread of the Omicron variant, knowledge has evolved. Maintaining barrier gestures remains a leitmotiv when, in addition, health protocols follow one another in companies, at school…

As the crisis unfolded, HEPA-filtered air purifiers and CO2 sensors gradually came to the fore in debates, including parliamentary ones, respectively as a complement to ventilation or aeration for the former and as anti-Covid room containment indicators for the latter. One trend is now confirmed: the ability to eliminate viruses and bacteria from the ambient air will remain an issue once the pandemic has been relegated to the status of an epidemic.

Two years ago, the first cases of Covid-19 were officially recorded in France, while this coronavirus had been circulating in China since at least November 2019. On 11 March 2020, the state of pandemic was declared by the WHO.

Six days later, France plunged into the first of its three lockdowns. A brutal shutdown of the country that lasted until May 10, 2020, that is to say one month and twenty-five days during which new uses imposed themselves by force of circumstance, including teleworking, for those who escaped partial unemployment, and its technological counterpart… videoconferences.

Still unknown to the general public at the time, an air purifier equipped with a HEPA 13 filter or a HEPA 14 filter (EN 1822 certified) quickly appeared as an additional ally for some of the most exposed populations.

“Today, there is a consensus on the capacity of a HEPA filter to eliminate viruses if they are carried by these aerosols, explains Vincent Chevalier, R&D engineer at NatéoSanté. In a health context, this is the first argument to be made in favour of an air purifier like EOLIS Air Manager.”

If we refer to the debate, at the beginning of January 2022, concerning the bill on the vaccination pass, we note that amendment no. 508, defended and then rejected on 3 January by the deputies, aimed to “encourage the installation of indoor air purifiers without filters in establishments open to the public and in public transport“.

For the models based on a HEPA filter, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran considered that they are relevant when “air renewal is impossible”, in line with the HCSP reference opinion (05/27/21).

This states:

The French Association for the Prevention of Air Pollution (Association Pour la Prévention de la Pollution Atmosphérique) has published a guide (June 2021) on “the place to be given to mobile indoor air purification devices in the fight against the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in enclosed spaces“.

It recalls that “to combat a deterioration in indoor air quality, the basic preventive measures to be adopted are the following:

Finally, it recommends that “the assessment of the efficacy and safety of a mobile indoor air purifying device should be carried out at three levels: the purification technology(ies) chosen, the device itself, under laboratory test conditions, but also under real-life use.”

Reminder on the respective efficiency of the captured particles:

The second argument of our model is the oxidation filter, which destroys micro-organisms.

In addition, the activated carbon filter – part of the filter unit – is effective against VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), i.e. chemical pollutants.

In a nutshell, the four elements of an anti-virus and Covid-19 air purifier are:

Laboratory tests have shown a 99.6% efficiency rate against coronaviruses of our professional reference EOLIS Air Manager.

Interviewed in the media on 25 January 2022, Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, President of the French Scientific Council, mentioned a possible end of the 5th wave, between Delta and the Omicron variant, by next March.

The day before, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO, had expressed the view that it was possible to emerge “from the acute phase of the pandemic this year“. While the B-2-A variant, which appeared in Denmark, remains under close scrutiny… and countries are beginning to lift restrictions (in England at the end of January, in France in February, according to Prime Minister Jean Castex’s announcement on 20 January), the shift towards an endemic vision of Covid-19 is beginning to take hold in Europe.

It establishes the idea that we will have to live with this virus, adapt to it and get used to applying the “aerate, ventilate and purify” triptych.