This was obvious to anyone with a functioning nose, right? Any fragrance basically necessitates VOCs and surprise surprise, many VOCs are harmful to you.
I’ll do my little PSA of: your “cool mist“ or ultrasonic dehumidifier is pumping your air full of particulate pollution. I’ve measured this myself, unintentionally, by putting one in my daughter’s room where I already had an air quality sensor. The PM2.5 soared.
Don’t put these in a bedroom! Probably avoid them entirely, and used a steam humidifier if you need the functionality.
Not "just water". Ultrasonic humidifiers aerosolize the water including whatever particles are on the water (e.g. calcium).
This is in contrast with steam humidifiers, which evaporate "just water". This is due to water evaporating at 100C, and all other particles stay in the heating chamber.
Probably depends on what’s in the water. Quoting the original research paper:
> A phenomenon known as “white dust” is associated with filling ultrasonic humidifiers with hard water; inhaling this white dust caused childhood lung injury (Daftary and Deterding, 2011)
Not entirely convinced this is correct. I've noticed that the humidity from a shower can also make air quality sensors readings spike so it does seem plausible that it's at least partially picking up the water
Use distilled water. I bought a distilling machine just for this and my pm2.5 sensor barely moves. Used to peak up to 120 on tap water. Now it’s consistently under 2 and the air is humid.
If you’re in the US: I switched to Branch Basics last year and their products are pretty good. I have to scrub harder and maybe spray and let the solution sit to get tough messes out but they work reasonably well. Also switched to blueland tabs for laundry and dishwasher and they also work pretty well. They even started selling those at Target
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[ 506 ms ] story [ 2862 ms ] threadAlthough I saw a product in a grocery store labeled "pro-biotic" cleaner.
Maybe it's a generational gap.
Don’t put these in a bedroom! Probably avoid them entirely, and used a steam humidifier if you need the functionality.
https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/articles...
For long term use (as it not just for a sick day), wick based (evaporative) humidifiers are a good option.
This is in contrast with steam humidifiers, which evaporate "just water". This is due to water evaporating at 100C, and all other particles stay in the heating chamber.
> A phenomenon known as “white dust” is associated with filling ultrasonic humidifiers with hard water; inhaling this white dust caused childhood lung injury (Daftary and Deterding, 2011)
Initially thought it would make the place smell but hasn't been an issue.