Health benefits of indoor air purification in severely air polluted cities revealed for first time by new research study

Stockholm, Sweden, December 11, 2015 – A first-of-its-kind study by a top Chinese medical university among healthy young adults in smog-hit Shanghai has demonstrated clear heart and lung health benefits of efficient indoor air purification.

“The findings by a medical research team at the prestigious School of Public Health at Shanghai’s Fudan University come at a propitious moment as outdoor air pollutions hits outrageously high levels in cities across China, India and elsewhere,” said Bengt Rittri, founder and CEO of Blueair, a world leader in mobile indoor air purification technologies. He said the research confirms Blueair’s contribution to helping people stay healthy and in top condition at home and work regardless of outside or inside air contamination.

According to the Fudan University researchers, the study – recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology – ‘demonstrated clear cardiopulmonary benefits of indoor air purification among young, healthy adults in a Chinese city with severe ambient particulate air pollution’. The authors added that one could expect even larger heart and lung benefits of air purification among particularly vulnerable people such as the young or elderly.

The study also rejected the notion that people could escape indoors to avoid outdoor pollution. The researchers found that closing doors and windows barely reduced health hazardous PM2.5 concentration, while use of an air purifier ‘efficiently reduced’ the amount of the fine particles in the indoor air resulting in improved heart and lung function.

Mr. Rittri noted that earlier this year a Blueair 503 air purifier won top marks for ‘extreme efficiency’ in cleaning indoor air of potentially health-threatening pollutants in an independent test using state-of-the-art equipment carried out by a leading U.S. airborne particle physicist and former NOAA scientist on behalf of Fast Company Magazine.

“As ordinary citizens there is little we can do to immediately tackle the wide issues of climate change and pollution, but as the Fudan University research shows we can take steps to protect and improve our health and wellbeing simply by creating safe indoor havens using an air purifier,” Mr. Rittri said.

BACKGROUND

• -The Fudan University study comprised a randomized, double-blind crossover trial among healthy college students randomized into two groups and alternated the use of true or sham air purifiers for 48 hours
• -In America, the National Resources Defense Council has cited a study that found approximately 64,000 people in the United States die prematurely from heart and lung disease every year due to particulate air pollution
• -A WHO study published in the summer of 2015 estimated the air pollution cost in Europe in 2010 alone at a staggering US1.6 trillion as a result of the approximately 600,000 deaths and diseases it caused
• -A scientific paper by Berkley Earth, a research organization based in Berkeley, California, said outdoor air pollution is contributing to the deaths of 4,400 people every day in China, or 1.6 million people a year

For more information, please contact:

Dave Noble
PR and media communication

E. david.noble@blueair.se
P. +44 7785 302 694