Are you breathing this in?

If you've been outside in the last few days, you already know.

The sky has that color. The air smells like something burning 500 miles away. Because it is.

More than 115 million Americans are under unhealthy air right now. Over 800 wildfires are burning in Canada, and the smoke is sitting over the Midwest, the Northeast, and the Mid-Atlantic. Minneapolis ranked as the second-worst air of any major city on the planet.

So you do what everyone says to do. Close the windows. Stay inside. Wait it out.

Here's what nobody tells you about that.

Closing the windows isn’t enough.

Researchers tracked indoor and outdoor air in more than 1,400 buildings during smoke season. On smoke days, people sealed up, and half as much outside air got in.

Indoor particle levels still nearly tripled.

These were people doing everything right. Windows shut, doors closed, staying in. The air inside got three times worse anyway, because smoke particles are small enough to come through every gap a house has. Around door frames. Through the HVAC. You can't seal a house against something that small.

The particles are the problem

Wildfire smoke particles are about 30 times thinner than a human hair. That's what PM2.5 means, and it's why it's in every alert you've seen recently.

Particles that small don't stop in your nose or throat. They go deep into your lungs, and the smallest ones cross into your bloodstream. That's the link to asthma attacks and heart problems during smoke events.

This isn't a bad-smell problem.

What actually reduces it

Filtration. That's the intervention that shows up in the research over and over. The same studies that found tripled indoor particles also found that filtration cuts them substantially.

That's why I run the Intellipure H1000 in my house. Not just for times like these, but all the time.

The H1000 uses dual H13 HEPA filters with Honeycomb VOC backing to capture over 99.9% of airborne particles, including ultrafine particles and unwanted odors. It covers up to 2,200 square feet in 30 minutes, runs quietly enough that I forget it's on, and the filters only need changing once a year.

Right now you can save 10% with code FOODBABE10.

Get 10% off Intellipure here →

The smoke clears and people move on. Then it comes back in three weeks and everyone starts over.

My Intellipure runs year-round. Smoke season is just when I notice it's working.

Xo,
Vani

P.S. If you have kids, someone pregnant, or anyone with asthma or heart issues in your house, this is the week to deal with it. Those are the groups every health department flags first, and they're the ones sitting inside breathing the air that got in.

P.P.S. At Food Babe, we only promote products we love to use. If you buy a product we link to, we may earn a commission.

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