Consider this information from Dr. John Mercola MD, www.Mercola.com 

CLEAN AIR & YOUR HEALTH

It is no secret that polluted outdoor air can be dangerous to your health, BUT did you know that indoor air pollution actually poses a FAR greater health risk to you and your family? In fact, about 50% of ALL illnesses are caused by or aggravated by indoor pollution.

Furthermore, most Americans are about to enter what is one of the most high-risk seasons of the year when it comes to indoor air quality and health -- mold season (summer/fall).

Mold is just one of the multiple indoor airborne health risks you need to be concerned with, but it is a particularly serious one. First, as you will learn below, it is a far more widespread problem than most people realize.

Second -- even more than most viruses and bacteria found in the air in typical American homes -- research has implicated mold and the mycotoxins in many health issues ranging from immune system suppression and muscle and joint pain to cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and learning disabilities.

Additionally, 33 million Americans suffer from sinusitis, or inflammation or infection of sinus passages. Research has now confirmed that chronic sinusitis is an immune disorder caused by fungus of which molds are a member.

Because of the widespread and growing dangers of indoor air pollution in general, and because we're about to hit peak season for one of the worst offenders -- mold -- please read below about my top-recommended defense against these health issues (it has been proven effective at reducing molds by a whopping 75-90%), including the amazing special offer I am making available to you through this Friday.

You'll Spend 90% of Your Life Indoors -- You CAN'T Achieve Optimal Health without Healthy Air!

Please consider this fact carefully: according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and multiple other sources, indoor air is two to five times more polluted than outdoor air on average, and in some U.S. regions it can be up 100 times more polluted, PLUS on average in the U.S. you will spend an astonishing 90% of your life indoors.

No matter how well you take care of yourself in terms of diet and exercise, it is very wise to limit your exposure to potential poisons and toxins -- including bacteria, viruses, allergens and mold, as well as human-produced chemicals and other toxins in the air -- if you wish to avoid disease.

Most of us still take the air we breathe for granted, and many years ago we could. But now you need to beware of the tens of thousands of new chemicals that have been created and can volatilize in your indoor home or work space -- and make you sick.

Clean indoor air is important to you staying healthy and living a long life, and because we're hitting the peak season for one of the worst offenders, mold ...

The health effects of indoor air pollutants range from short-term problems of eye and throat irritation to long-term illness of respiratory disease and cancer.

Based on cancer risk alone, federal scientists have ranked indoor air pollution as one of the most important environmental problems in the US.

Here are more important facts I urge you to consider carefully about indoor air pollution:

Those especially vulnerable to the health risks of indoor pollutants include infants, the elderly, those with heart and lung diseases, people with asthma, and anyone who has developed extreme sensitivity to chemicals.

Making matters worse -- these are often the people who often spend the most time indoors. The chart below outlines indoor air pollutants and the risk they pose to you and your family.

* Depends on factors such as the amount of pollutant inhaled, the duration of exposure and susceptibility of the individual exposed.

How Dirty Is the Air In Your City?

The American Lung Association's 2004 report on air quality used air quality measurements made by state and local agencies and reported to EPA for the years 2000 through 2002 to measure and rank air quality throughout the United States. The rankings were based on daily and year-round particle pollution levels, plus daily ozone levels.

Particle pollution is made up of complex microscopic bits (one-thirtieth the width of a human hair) that cause serious health problems even at relatively low concentrations.

Researchers categorize particles according to size, grouping them as coarse particles and fine particles. Coarse particles fall between 2.5 microns and 10 microns. Fine particles are 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller. Both coarse and fine particles are harmful to your health.

When you inhale these particles, they embed themselves deep in the lungs -- some can pass through the lungs to the blood. Studies link particle pollution to increased risk of asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, and tens of thousands of premature deaths in the U.S. every year.

Ozone is generated naturally by short-wave solar ultraviolet radiation and appears in our upper atmosphere (ozonosphere) in the form of a gas. Ozone also may be produced naturally by passing an electrical discharge -- such as lightning -- through oxygen molecules. Lightning is a perfect example of making an abundance of O3 (ozone molecules) to naturally purify the earth's atmosphere.

When ozone comes into contact with pollutants it loses one of its atoms and "oxidizes" the pollutant, thereby destroying it. But, because ozone is an oxidizer -- always trying to give away its extra atom -- high, sustained levels of ozone in the air near the ground can be harmful to humans, plants and animals.

While particle pollution is clearing becoming a widespread problem now affecting a quarter of all Americans, ozone levels continue to endanger nearly half the nation (136 million Americans). Below is a list of cities most affected by the poorest air quality.

Cities MOST Affected by Poor Air Quality

These cities and their outlying regions have been found to be most affected by poor air quality. This means, in layman's terms, the situation is very bad outside -- and on average MUCH worse inside!

If you live in one of the cities mentioned above, you should definitely consider taking extra precautions to avoid dangerous air pollution. While moving to an area with cleaner air may not be a viable option, you can control the amount of pollution you are breathing indoors. With good quality AIR PURIFIERS including Mercola's own:

The Way Healthier Home Air Purifier -- with this, you can rest assured that the indoor air your family breathes is virtually toxin free!

Why You MUST Pay Serious Attention to Molds in Your Home

Mold has been getting a lot of press the last few years, especially since mold infestation has become associated with "sick building syndrome".

Just to define terms, molds are microscopic, musty-smelling members of the fungi (fungus) family. Molds reproduce by releasing tiny spores into the air. Because these spores are so small, they can reach deep into your respiratory tract. Three of the most common molds/fungi found in indoors are Aspergillus, Stachybotrys, and Penicillium.

Both mold particles and mold spores in your home can lead to health problems, along with an even-scarier mold hazard.

Although you may have heard the term "toxic mold", it is actually a toxic substance released by some molds (called a mycotoxin) that is the most dangerous.

The health hazards of some of these mycotoxins from molds such as Stachybotrys (a slimy black mold) and other species are now coming to light as people are filing homeowner's insurance claims and seeking medical treatment for mold invasion of their homes.

Ironically, Erin Brockovich, the working mother whose investigation into toxic groundwater contamination became the subject of a movie bearing her name, has been a victim of Stachybotrys home contamination. And a Florida councilwoman, Jacquie Hepfer, had to vacate her home after an invasion of toxic mold she found under the kitchen sink caused her to develop an array of health problems.

While true "sick building syndrome" may be uncommon (serious mycotoxin invasion requires professional remediation -- do not attempt to clean it up yourself), it points out the fact that molds love and thrive on dampness.

Unfortunately, most homes have suffered some type of water damage, whether from a plumbing problem or a leaking roof. Even high humidity can give molds a happy reproductive environment. So once your home dries out, there may still be hidden sources of mold and mold spores trapped under the carpet or pad, in wallboard, wood, or numerous other areas.

Additionally, your pillows and bedding, air conditioner units, upholstery, shower stalls and other areas are ripe areas for mold fungus infestation. And unfortunately, cleaning is not very effective as a primary measure, since mold spores are very resistant organisms.

Molds are a serious issue in common illnesses such as allergies, asthma, and chronic sinus infections.

According to research published in a 2004 issue of the Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine, "There is an accumulated weight of evidence linking indoor airborne mold and/or myocotoxin exposures to multisystem adverse human health effects."

All the evidence isn't in yet, but molds, mold spores and mycotoxins have been implicated in many other symptoms and disorders, including:

That's why we recommend you take mold seriously and use a high-quality home air purification unit such as the Way Healthier Home Air Purifier.

The Pros and Cons of Air Purifying Methods

If you are researching air purifiers, you may wind up a bit confused. Air purifiers come in all shapes and sizes and employ what seems to be straightforward technology on the surface. But simply put, some achieve cleaner air more efficiently than others.

Below is a listing of the basic home air purifiers on the market today and a description of how they work, plus the pros and the cons of each.

Buyer Beware: Two Air Purifiers You Want To Avoid!

NEVER use Ozone Generators that use ozone as their primary source of purification!

Ozone is an unstable oxygen molecule (O3) that oxidizes anything it bumps into. So if it "bumps" into iron, it makes iron oxide or rust. Ozone air purifiers work by propelling the ozone by a fan, whatever the ozone bumps into it oxidizes. This is great for removing odors, killing mold and mildew -- and even killing small animals with enough exposure!

If a home is flooded or has a sewage backup, professionals will use this technology to help clean up the mess. Since people and pets are removed while the ozone is applied and are only brought back after the ozone is removed, this is an appropriate use of the technology.

Still, there are several firms that sell ozone air purifiers for home use. This can be dangerous because overexposure to ozone can bring on asthma symptoms, and a high enough level of ozone can actually scar your lungs! Beware of the following misleading sales pitches often used by retailers trying to sell ozone purifiers for residential use:

Note: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established 80 ppb (parts per billion) of ozone exposure over eight hours as the National Ambient Air Quality Standard. The Underwriters Laboratories (the trusted source across the globe for product compliance) standard for emitting ozone is 50 ppb. Currently, air purifiers are not legally obligated to comply with this standard, but it is a very strong recommendation. When tested, the Way Healthier Home Air Purifier produced a maximum of 10 ppb -- a very safe and effective level of ozone far below the UL standard of 50 ppb!

Sharper Image Ionic Breeze Air Purifiers are turning up everywhere these days, but don't be fooled by their popularity -- this is another purifier you DON'T want to use.

Ionic Breeze ads run on scores of channels, versions are sold in countless publications, and the products are sold in lots of stores, so it must be good right? Wrong. The relentless intensity of advertising behind Ionic Breeze purifiers just gives the product the appearance of popularity.

Ionic Breeze Air Purifiers "work" by using a charged plate electrostatic system, but with no fan. It relies solely on the electrostatic plates to move the air though the air purifier. To some extent it does move air as you can see with the wiggling ribbons on TV.

What the makers of Ionic Breeze fail to mention is that it moves very little air. The typical air purifier moves 200 to 400 cubic feet of air a minute. If you put the little ribbons from the ionic breeze air purifier commercial on the typical purifier -- they would be blown off. To put this in perspective, 400 cubic feet is contained in a room with 8-foot ceilings that is about 9' by 6'. The "real" air purifiers move all of this air in ONE minute. Here are some points to remember about the Ionic Breeze:

If you have serious allergy or asthma problems, it's obvious that you are better off going with a less advertised but more substantially performing air cleaner.

Air Purifiers That Work -- But Then Can't Finish the Job

High Efficiency Particulate Air filter, or HEPA, technology is one of the most popular technologies used in air purifiers. An air purifier that is equipped with a HEPA filter is able to absorb 99.7% of all particles that are 0.03 microns and larger in size. Most harmful particles found in the air are measured to be about 0.03 microns or larger. To qualify as a "true" HEPA, the filter must allow no more than 3 particles out of 10,000 to penetrate the filtration media.

As good as that sounds pure HEPA air purifiers do not remove odors, chemicals or gasses. Since these are molecular level substances, the 0.3 micron holes are large compared to the gas molecules. Because air must pass through the filter, it can be difficult to clean a very large room with a HEPA filter.

To understand how the HEPA works, imagine a filter that only allows very tiny particles to pass through. If you placed a single sheet of this HEPA paper in front of a fan, very little air would be able to pass because of the small size of the holes. In addition, air purifiers made like this would need to have the filter changed often because the holes would plug rapidly.

To get adequate airflow and filter life, you would have to fold the paper back and forth so that it can present a very large surface area to the airflow (pictured left). This is how "real" HEPA filters are made -- with as much as 40 square feet of the filter material folded into the HEPA section.

A HEPA air purifier is simply a fan that forces airflow though a filter. The more times the airflow goes though the filter, the cleaner the room. So, if you put the product at one end of a long narrow room, how often is the air from the other end going to get though the HEPA filter? Not often. If you need to purify air in a large space, the HEPA is probably not your best choice.

Electronic air purifiers use an electronic charge to attract particles to collection plates and eliminate them from the air. Proven to be 95% efficient, electronic purifiers can absorb most particles from the air. Similar to magnets, they use static electricity to charge particles in the air. The static that is developed by the machine is used to attach a charge to all particles in the air that is taken in by the air purifier.

When the particles possess a charge, this charge is attracted to the opposite type of charge. This opposite charge is placed onto collection plates or other types of medium inside the air purifier. This medium attracts the charged particles and they stick to the charged medium instead of staying in the air. There are two types of electronic air purifiers:

1. The one-stage system in an electronic air purifier charges the particles and sticks them to the collection plates. There is only one step that the air goes through of filtering once it enters the air purifier.
2. In the two-stage system, however, the air enters the air purifier and the particles in the air are charged using high-voltage wires. The charged particles are then pulled into metal plates that are charged oppositely. Both types of electronic air purifiers are just as effective at removing particles from the air.

Here's why electronic air purifiers are more efficient than other types:

Electronic purifiers cover smaller areas such as bedrooms and small living quarters. The usage of electronic purifiers is very limited as an increased airflow reduces the unit's effectiveness in removing air borne particles.

Electronic units are acceptable in removing dust and pet dander but not recommended for removal of chemicals, smoke, molds and certain smaller pollen particles.

Negative ion purifiers re-create the same process that nature uses to keep the air fresh and clean.

To understand how these purifiers work, you need to first understand the role negative ions play in nature.

An ion is any atom that has a positive or a negative charge. A positively charged ion will seek a negatively charged one to unite with and then turn into something totally new and available. In nature, ions are generated in abundance wherever energy is transferred into the air such as ultra-violet light from the sun, or by lightning and thunderstorms.

Negative ions remove airborne contaminates from the air you breathe, and have a rejuvenating effect when interacting with your body -- especially your respiratory system.

Places we find energizing, such as in the mountains, near waterfalls and the beach have optimal concentrations of negative ions of at least 2,000 per cubic centimeter.
On the other hand, there are only a couple hundred negative ions per cubic cm. in the typical indoor environment. Scientific studies about negative ions have also shown that some people become moody, tired, depressed, or experience difficulty concentrating when negative ion counts are low, or when positive ion counts are high (such as in front of a computer monitor).

Negative Ion purifiers generate the negative ions that nature uses to significantly reduce the amount of dust and other particles in the air.

Most floating contaminates and allergens are positively charged. In environments where high densities of negative ions exist, they are able to reverse the charge of floating contaminates to a negative charge.

This results in a magnetic attraction among the floating pollutants in the air, causing them clump together. As a result, they become too heavy to remain floating and fall to the ground -- out of the air you breathe (shown pictured right).

However, these particles fall out of the air and are then stuck to the wall or items in the room that the air purifier is cleaning. The particles that the negative ion attract and charge are not cleanly taken out of the air or absorbed into the air purifier. Instead, they have simply been moved to the walls and surrounding solid items in the room. These particles could easily become loose and circulate the air again.

Although negative ion technology may seem to be cutting edge and may seem effective since it is used in a few different industries, this type of air purifier is still not proven as effective as HEPA technology or electronic technology when it comes to eliminating and catching more particles in the air.

You Air Purifier needs to

According to a recent Mayo Clinic Study, nearly all chronic sinus infections (afflicting 37 million Americans) are a result of molds. Molds (sometimes referred to as black molds, even though mold can come in a variety of colors) can cause a wide array of adverse responses in humans depending on the type and quantity that is present.

The health risks associated with mold exposure include, but are not limited to: allergic reactions, irritation associated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), invasive disease, and mycotoxicosis. Infants, young children, the immune-compromised, and the elderly are at an increased risk of experiencing adverse health effects related to mold exposure

Ionizing Air Purifiers, like Way Healthier, are typically better than air filters at minimizing the airborne particulate, which allows mold spores to disperse to other areas of your home since they can remove smaller particles from the air, and do not rely on particulate passing through them in order to remove them from the air.

Formaldehyde (also called Quaternion) is a cheap preservative found in virtually everything from rugs and new clothes to soap and even baby shampoo! If you find it listed on labels around your house, your house is filled with these carcinogenic vapors. Unless, you use a quality Air Purifier!

Mercola.com sells excellent Air Purifiers. Ecoquest also sells excellent Air Purifiers.

                                     Blessings,
                                              Tami