DOH: Air purifiers don't protect vs COVID-19, give false sense of security
MANILA, Philippines — Wearable air purifiers do not provide protection against COVID-19 and may even contribute to a false sense of security, the Department of Health said on Monday.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire stressed that the department does not recommend the use of wearable air purifiers, citing the lack of evidence that they are effective in reducing COVID-19 transmission.
"While air purifiers do not cause harm, these also do not provide protection against COVID-19," Vergeire said in Filipino.
"What it will do, it will give that false sense of security to the public that may lead to complacency," she added.
The Philippine COVID-19 Living Clinical Practice Guidelines of the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology and the National Institutes of Health also do not recommend the use of ionizing air purifier.
"One of the studies noted that when an area is inhabited, reducing the particulate matter becomes insignificant once people move within the household, which consequently makes the ionizing air purifier ineffective,” the Living CPG panel said.
The panel also noted that ionizers emit ozone, which it said may inflict health hazards through long-term or high-dose exposure.
Cebu requires air purifiers
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has required all public utility vehicle drivers and conductors in the province to have their own wearable air purifiers starting Monday. Failure to wear an air purifier will mean a fine.
Transport group Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwid (Piston) Cebu said the requirement will only burden ordinary drivers and conductors. Instead, it called for genuine health solutions to the pandemic.
"The air purifier is a mere band-aid solution. What the people need now is to hasten the distribution of free and safe vaccines, and free swab testing," Greg Perez, chairperson of Piston-Cebu, said in Cebuano.
Last year, Garcia also issued a memorandum urging employees of the provincial government to practice “tuob” or steam inhalation in an attempt to ward off COVID-19. But the DOH said there is no scientific evidence that steam therapy kills SARS-CoV-2, or the virus that causes COVID-19.
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