If you’re a smoker, you know that smoking indoors is a major issue for the air quality in your home and have probably wondered if buying a HEPA air filter for cigarette smoke could help. An air filter uses filter media to trap airborne particles that cause unpleasant smells and could potentially trigger allergies and cause other health issues. Could it remove cigarette smoke from the air as well?
Key Takeaways
- An air filter meeting the HEPA standard traps particles as small as 0.3 micron. However, some of the particles in cigarette smoke are smaller than 0.3 micron [1].
- A HEPA air filter with a heavy activated charcoal stage can reduce the smell of cigarette smoke and may also trap some harmful compounds [2].
- You shouldn’t expect an air filter to prevent the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. It’s better to avoid smoking in your home instead.
What’s the Problem with Smoking in Your House?
Let’s start by discussing the root problem. Why is it such a bad idea to smoke indoors?
- Your family and pets will inhale second-hand smoke. The negative effects of this are well documented.
- If you decide to sell your home, the smoke smell will reduce its value by as much as 30 percent. People will reduce their offers substantially to account for the high cost of smoke remediation.
- Smoking in your home is a major fire risk. Smoking accounts for about 8.2 percent of accidental home fires in the UK and 35 percent of fire-related deaths. Buying an air purifier won’t solve this problem, of course, but it’s still worth keeping in mind.
You’re probably well aware of the drawbacks and dangers of smoking indoors, but going outside to smoke isn’t always an option for everyone. For example, you could have mobility issues or could have trouble getting outside during winter.
How Do HEPA Air Filters Work?
Would it be helpful to buy a HEPA air filter for cigarette smoke? Let’s begin with an introduction to how air filters work. We’ll start with an overview of a typical air filter as a whole and continue with an explanation of what HEPA filters are and how they work.
An air filter is a device that uses a fan to force ambient air through filter elements of increasing fineness. The device usually consists of multiple filter stages that are all replaceable individually. The typical filter stages are:
- A coarse filter or pre-filter that traps larger items like hair and dust. By preventing those items from entering the system, the coarse filter helps to maximise the life of the other filter stages. The coarse filter typically requires replacement about every three months.
- An activated charcoal filter that reduces unwanted odours by trapping volatile organic compounds and other gaseous substances. The activated charcoal filter typically requires replacement every six to nine months.
- A High-Efficiency Particulate Arresting (HEPA) filter, which traps tiny airborne particles as small as 0.3 micron. The HEPA filter typically requires replacement about once a year.
A HEPA filter is a mat of fibres that are usually made from fibreglass or polypropylene. The fibres are arranged in a random way so as to allow air to pass through whilst trapping very small particles.
Some of the unwanted particles in the range of 0.3 micron include:
- Mould spores
- Pollen
- Fine dust
- Dust mite residue
- Some bacteria
- Most pet dander
- Some viruses
You’ll notice that cigarette smoke isn’t on the above list. That brings us to the next topic.
Does a HEPA Air Filter Remove Cigarette Smoke?
A good HEPA air filter can mitigate some of the unwanted effects of smoking indoors. It can reduce wall staining and eliminate some of the odour. However, you should not expect it to prevent the negative health effects of second-hand smoke.
A HEPA air filter is useful for removing a wide variety of allergens and other unwanted particles from the air – but can it actually remove cigarette smoke? The answer is unfortunately “no” – at least not completely. Cigarette smoke falls in the range of “ultrafine particles” and typically has a particulate size ranging from 0.01 micron to 1 micron. So, although a HEPA air filter can reduce the amount of cigarette smoke in the air, it won’t capture the finest particles.
Also, it’s important to note that an air filter can only remove toxins from the air that actually passes through it. Unless you’re blowing the smoke directly into the filter, at least some of it will be inhaled by others in your home before the filter can do its job.
Although a large portion of the particles in cigarette smoke fall below the size that HEPA filters are designed to remove, it’s important to remember that HEPA is simply a minimum standard. It’s possible for a filter to exceed the standard, and a good manufacturer should publish test data for its products. You may find that a filter from a certain manufacturer removes a certain percentage of particles even smaller than 0.3 microns, which means that it’ll remove more cigarette smoke than a basic HEPA filter. However, even the best HEPA filter can’t completely prevent the negative effects of smoking indoors.
How Much Does a HEPA Air Filter Cost?
If you want to buy a HEPA air filter that captures a significant portion of cigarette smoke from the air, you can expect to spend around £1,000 for it. The effectiveness of an air filter has a great deal to do with the size of the filter media, so the total volume of the unit will be several cubic feet. Here’s why.
- To noticeably remove the smell of cigarette smoke, the air filter should contain several pounds of activated charcoal.
- A HEPA filter can only remove a significant percentage of cigarette smoke from the air if it has a very thick mat of fibres.
- An air filter can only shift a large volume of air without becoming a noise irritant if it has a large fan.
If you don’t have the budget for a good air purifier, you probably don’t want to buy one at all. An inexpensive air purifier won’t remove a significant amount of cigarette smoke and could potentially even make your home’s air quality worse.
Are There Alternatives to Buying a HEPA Air Filter for Cigarette Smoke?
A high-quality air filter is definitely a great thing to have if you’re a smoker. A filter with a heavy activated charcoal stage and a thick mat of HEPA filter media can reduce the smell of smoke in your home and may also help to mitigate problems such as yellowing of the walls. However, an air filter can’t completely prevent the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. With that in mind, consider one of these two alternatives to smoking indoors.
- Go outside to smoke.
- If you can’t do that, use an alternative nicotine product such as a vape. Companies like V2 Cigs UK offer a wide variety of e-cigarettes and other vaping products designed to be as easy as possible for smokers to use.