California fires and CPAP

[juaquin]

Just an interesting anecdote - I live in the Bay Area and as I'm sure most people are aware, there are huge fires raging in Northern California. The Bay has been enveloped in smoke for a full week now despite being over a hundred miles away from the fires. Today we reached Unhealthy levels as measured by the EPA.

Now how this relates to CPAP - I ordered hypoallergenic filters for my Airsense 10 a couple weeks ago, mostly just to try them out. They arrived and I put one in my machine on the second day of the fires. Five days later, this is what the filter looks like compared to a new one:



I'm glad it caught that stuff, but it's scary to think how much might be getting through and how much people are breathing outside. We're running an air filter inside and it still picked up that much.

[Goofproof]

Are you inhaling deeply the rest of the day. You owe it to your fellow man to screen smoke and impurities out of the air others have to breath. It's selfish to only clean the air you breath at nite. Jim

[palerider]

Just an interesting anecdote - I live in the Bay Area and as I'm sure most people are aware, there are huge fires raging in Northern California. The Bay has been enveloped in smoke for a full week now despite being over a hundred miles away from the fires. Today we reached Unhealthy levels as measured by the EPA.

Now how this relates to CPAP - I ordered hypoallergenic filters for my Airsense 10 a couple weeks ago, mostly just to try them out. They arrived and I put one in my machine on the second day of the fires. Five days later, this is what the filter looks like compared to a new one:



I'm glad it caught that stuff, but it's scary to think how much might be getting through and how much people are breathing outside. We're running an air filter inside and it still picked up that much.

I suggested to someone that they try taping a N95 or N100 filter over the end of the cpap, so that it can filter out the smoke particulate.

[juaquin]

I suggested to someone that they try taping a N95 or N100 filter over the end of the cpap, so that it can filter out the smoke particulate.

Saw and considered that, though I think I'm ok with the air purifier and the hypo filter. Trying to tape one of our masks over the machine intake seems like more trouble than it's worth at that point. Might be worth trying if you only have the regular filters though - my regular filter came out pretty much clean even after several weeks of use and two days use in the smoke. They don't filter much more than dust bunnies, it seems like.

[palerider]

I suggested to someone that they try taping a N95 or N100 filter over the end of the cpap, so that it can filter out the smoke particulate.

Saw and considered that, though I think I'm ok with the air purifier and the hypo filter. Trying to tape one of our masks over the machine intake seems like more trouble than it's worth at that point. Might be worth trying if you only have the regular filters though - my regular filter came out pretty much clean even after several weeks of use and two days use in the smoke. They don't filter much more than dust bunnies, it seems like.

I've got the hypo filter, and an AB filter in the hose. The AB filter catches stuff that the hypo lets by.

Food for thought.

[kaiasgram]

Just an interesting anecdote - I live in the Bay Area and as I'm sure most people are aware, there are huge fires raging in Northern California. The Bay has been enveloped in smoke for a full week now despite being over a hundred miles away from the fires. Today we reached Unhealthy levels as measured by the EPA.

I'm glad it caught that stuff, but it's scary to think how much might be getting through and how much people are breathing outside. We're running an air filter inside and it still picked up that much.

Today we reached Hazardous, just a little west of Sacramento... lots of people walking around with N93 masks. For once hubby and I are glad to be using our CPAPs. Our machines also have hypoallergenic filters, and this weekend we bought a premium air filter for the house (we got the last one the store had, no surprise).