As Europe’s City of Light is dimmed by record heavy air pollution, Parisians need to check daily air pollution forecasts, avoid outdoor exercise and create safer indoor habitats

Stockholm, Sweden, December 9, 2016 – Parisians should make it a daily habit to check air pollution forecasts, avoid exercising or playing outside during high pollution alerts and create safe indoor air environments to avoid the consequences of breathing toxic air. The practical advice comes from Blueair whose innovative indoor air purifying solutions have been acclaimed best in class at removing health-threatening airborne particulates in both official and independent tests.


In a week that has seen Paris and other parts of northern France shrouded by the worst winter air pollution in a decade caused by vehicle, heating and industrial emissions, Blueair notes how numerous studies by international organizations such as WHO and UNICEF increasingly highlight the long-term consequences of breathing toxic air.


UNICEF in October issued a study saying air pollution is impacting the lives of around two billion children globally, threatening their long-term health and future. According to UNICEF, outdoor and indoor air pollution are together directly linked with pneumonia and other respiratory diseases that account for almost one in 10 under-five deaths, making air pollution one of the leading dangers to children’s health.


In a world where WHO says 98 percent of cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants do not meet its global air quality guidelines, more evidence is emerging of the long-term consequences of breathing bad air, including rising rates of respiratory diseases such asthma. In July, a study by researchers at Sweden’s Umeå University of over 500,000 young Swedish people established a link between polluted air and childhood mental illness.


A study by American scientists compared the health of nearly 3,000 people who lived in London during the Great Smog of1952 with a similar group living outside the city. The researchers said the prevalence of childhood asthma was 20 percent higher among people exposed to the event during their first year of life and that exposure while in the womb led to an 8 percent higher risk of asthma, according to their paper published in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.


Blueair says that while individuals can do little in the short-term to counter outdoor air pollution, they can take common-sense measures to protect themselves by checking daily air pollution forecasts and making changes in their daily routines accordingly. The Blueair Friend air quality app, available for free download for both Apple and Android mobile phones and tablets, gathers data on an hourly basis from thousands of monitoring stations to deliver trustworthy information on what’s polluting urban air, rating it from ‘good’ to ‘hazardous’ and advising users on what actions to take to remove the airborne pollutants.


Background


- The UNICEF ‘Clean the air for children report’ is available here: https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/UNICEF_Clear_the_Air_for_Children_30_Oct_2016.pdf

- The full Umeå University research report can be read here: http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/6/e010004.full


- The London Great Smog article is available at: http://www.thoracic.org/about/newsroom/press-releases/great-smog-and-asthma.pdf



- Blueair air purifiers have won top accolades from the official Chinese product inspection and certification agency, AQSIQ, which has ranked Blueair air purifiers best in class at living up to the company's performance claims that its filtration technologies efficiently, quietly clean indoor air of airborne pollutants.

For more information, please contact
David Noble, Blueair Public Relations, +44 7785 302 694 or david.noble@blueair.se

About Blueair
Founded in 1996 in Stockholm, Sweden, Blueair innovates, manufactures and commercializes award-winning indoor air purifying technologies and products for consumers and businesses. Available in over 60 markets worldwide, Blueair air purifiers are designed to enhance user health and wellbeing by removing airborne allergens, asthma triggers, viruses, bacteria and other pollutants in home, work and leisure environments. www.blueair.com