The 21st Century has brought us many advances. The progress industry has been through changed everything around it and the environment is suffering its effects.

The air is the means of transportation - and consequently, the means by which microorganisms get spread, more commonly that ever before. It's pretty easy for an epidemic to get spread through the air and it's scary, if we take into account what happened with the Ebola virus some years ago. The whole world was afraid, even countries at the other side of the globe were praying for the virus not to get to their territory.

Directly opposite to what many people think, it is not only the "outside" that offers danger to our overall health. We are not safe even inside our homes. Believe it or not, a study developed by environment researchers found that the air inside our homes is dirtier than the air we breathe when we are walking in the street.

What are we exposed to?

We are exposed to a lot of danger when we breathe. Asthmatic people suffer even more than people who don't have any respiratory disorders. Little children, especially newborn babies, and old people are the most predisposed to suffer respiratory disorders due to the bad condition of the air we breathe.

It's not that hundreds of years ago, the air was safe. No, it was not. Allergens have always existed. But progress has brought us industries with their high chimneys spreading smoke, a dark and heavy smoke, into the air. We have cars that also spread smoke. These simply create high levels of pollution.

Besides the pollution, we also have the allergens in the air. And the majority of these are the ones responsible for the asthma crisis today. The smoke of a cigarette, the pollen from flowers and the thousands of different smells mixed together may lead a delicate respiratory system into a serious crisis.

In addition to that, bacteria and viruses as well as other types of microorganisms are constant threats. Due to these invisible creatures, people get pneumonia and tuberculosis, diseases that may lead to death if not treated properly.

How do we protect our loved ones?

Unfortunately, there aren't many things we can do in order to protect our family or our environment at work. We can't prevent pollution, allergens or microorganisms from existing in the air that we breathe and we cannot stop breathing either.

The same hand that pollutes tries to clean. Industries have developed some air purifiers in order to decrease the effects of the polluted air we breathe.

Air purifiers simply try to take from the air the allergens and some of the pollution. It's something we can do to decrease the effects on our bodies. It is certainly necessary if we have new babies at home.

Techniques used

There are several techniques available for people who want to create a safe - or less dangerous - indoor environment with respect to the air.

Some air purifiers use adsorbent techniques and electrostatic charges and ionizers. Some others include a germicidal UV light and the emission of ions into the air in order to react with the agents that may cause health problems and reduce or eliminate them. However, there isn't an air purifier sold for homes able to create indoor conditions as clean as those found in hospitals.

We cannot control what we breathe when we are in the street, but we can do something to avoid such side effects when we are at home.