PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) – It’s “Air Quality Awareness Week” and many organizations, including the EPA, are asking people to prepare for poor air quality days.
It’s important to think about this sooner rather than later as wildfires in the Pacific Northwest are becoming more intense and more frequent.
Oregon and Washington are no strangers to poor air quality days. Last year, Central Oregon spent more than a month at the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” level.
Now, as part of Clean Air Awareness Week, the EPA, along with the CDC and DEQ, want to help.
According to DEQ’s Dylan Darling, “You may not think about your air filter until it’s actually the time of year when we see smoke from Oregon wildfires and smoky conditions at the level where we have air quality advisories. »
Officials say now is the time to prepare. A simple way to do this is to create a personal air filter.
You can attach a filter to a box fan, making sure the airflow arrows are aligned with the airflow passing through the fan.
Experts claim that the makeshift filter will remove all the smoke particles present in the air, leaving cleaner air in the room.
“Stop and see if you have a replacement filter. If you don’t, look for a MERF 13 filter,” says Darling. These are the filters recommended by experts.
You can find them at any area home improvement store.
