Technology can help create a clean and aesthetic home office

COVID-19 has forced millions of people around the world to stop heading to work for the day and start crafting makeshift home office spaces instead.

Information about COVID-19 is still continuously being discovered, and as such, health recommendations about how to conduct ourselves in public spaces, like keeping physical distance, are still evolving.

But now that people are stuck in their homes more often, they are spending more time thinking about the ways to keep their personal and private spaces clean while enjoying the comfort of their American made leather furniture.

Aside from picking out the right sized desk and a comfortable chair that may be in use for longer than expected, technology like air purifiers or humidifiers are also aesthetically pleasing and practical aspects for a work from home situation.

Before COVID-19 became a global pandemic, many people used humidifiers in homes or offices to combat the regular, and less scary occurrence of dry air. But the pandemic caused health organizations to advise being wary of contamination in enclosed indoor spaces due recycled air. Humidifiers do exactly what their name suggests and add humidity to the air around us. 

Research also shows that humid air, and, by extension, the use of a humidifier, can have an impact on the flu virus as well, by killing particles of influenza in the air.

And the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States has even recommended humidifiers as a way to ease symptoms of COVID-19, such as a cough or sore throat.

But it is air purifiers in particular that are gaining attention as a potential product to capture and kill airborne particles carrying COVID-19.

“Public health officials still don’t know whether direct contact, indirect contact through surfaces, or aerosols are the main pathway of transmission for the coronavirus. But everything experts like myself know about aerosols suggests that they could be a major pathway of transmission,” writes Professor Shelly Miller from the University of Colorado Boulder who studies aerosols, in her article on COVID-19 in the air.

While humidifiers may relieve a sore throat symptom, an air purifier with a HEPA filter might actually be able to capture and kill aerosol particles with COVID-19.

HEPA filters are able to capture aerosol particles in sizes all the way down to 0.01 microns, according to this study by NASA. And the COVID-19 virus can live on particles from our mouth and nose from 0.125 microns. 

Air purifiers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and they are now being reviewed for their effectiveness against COVID-19.