HEALTHFUL LIVING Purification systems: a breath of fresh air?

Helping people breathe easier has become big business.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
CHICAGO -- Pat Boone is crooning a different tune these days.
He is singing the praises of Living Air, a high-tech air purifier that promises to scrub indoor air clean of everything from fish odors to cigarette smoke.
"You can survive weeks without food, days without water but only minutes without air," Boone says in ads on Chicago radio. "It just makes sense for your family to breathe fresh air."
Helping consumers breathe easier has become a big business. In the past five years, U.S. sales of air-cleaning systems shot up 34 percent, to $395 million in 2003, according to a study by the Freedonia Group Inc., an independent Cleveland-based market research firm. That figure is expected to grow 5.4 percent annually and exceed half a billion dollars by 2008 as more companies barrage consumers with messages touting the benefits of pristine air, retail consultants say.
"Fifteen years ago, people thought it was crazy to buy bottled water," notes Cynthia Cohen, president of Strategic Mindshare, a retail consulting firm headquartered in Florida. "There is now consciousness-raising about poor air quality. We've built too many buildings where we cannot open windows."
Competition
Much of the current competition is focused on high-tech air purifiers, the kind represented by EcoQuest International's "Living Air" and Sharper Image's "Ionic Breeze." They sell for about $300 and up, although other manufacturers' models that rely on older HEPA filter technology can be had at discount stores such as Wal-Mart for as little as $30.
Few experts expect air purifiers to become the next microwave oven, an appliance that once struck consumers as bizarre but is now found in 90 percent of U.S. households.
Yet for the growing number of families where someone suffers from asthma or allergies, air purifiers may soon be considered a necessity, predicted Cohen.
Other consumers concerned about healthful living, including many aging baby boomers, already have added an air purifier to their anti-aging arsenal of vitamins, organic vegetables and filtered water.
Some are even wearing miniaturized air purifiers around their necks on airplane trips. Sharper Image sells air cleaners for use in cars and office cubicles.
The case for air purification was bolstered by a study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency in the mid-1990s. The government agency best known for cleaning up toxic waste sites came to a surprising conclusion: "The air within homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even the largest and most industrialized cities."
Getting ugly
Even so, the competition to sell clean air is becoming downright dirty.
The Federal Trade Commission slapped several air purifier companies with fines for making claims about their products that are not supported by science.
After Consumer Reports gave Sharper Image's air purifier poor grades in 2002 and 2003, Sharper Image sued the magazine, alleging its findings were false and misleading. It also sued some competitors, alleging they have infringed on Sharper Image's patents by copying the Ionic Breeze's design or technology too closely.
The people at Oreck suggest Living Air purifiers come with some risk for those with respiratory problems because their machines use ozone to clean the air. Ozone, an extremely energetic form of oxygen found in the upper atmosphere, can be hazardous when it makes its way into the air we breathe; hence ozone action days.
EcoQuest International, the company that makes Living Air, says its first-generation purifiers did use ozone, but the level was carefully monitored by the purifiers to make sure it stayed within safe parameters. Its second-generation machines use much less ozone.
The battle is likely to get uglier.
Sales of Sharper Image's Ionic Breeze purifiers appear to be softening as more competitors enter the lucrative game. That is a blow to the San Francisco-based high-tech gadget retailer, which relies on purifiers for an estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of sales, according to BusinessWeek magazine. Sharper Image says that percentage is too high but declines to be more specific.
Looking ahead
In the long run, though, the free-standing air purifier may become mostly a thing of the past, retail experts predict.
As new houses are built, an increasing number are featuring air purification systems tied into the home's heating and ventilation systems.
That is fine with EcoQuest's founder and president, Mike Jackson. As part of the RGF acquisition, his company now has a residential unit, which makes purifiers that tie into ductwork.
"There's no question in my mind a day will come when everyone has an air purification system in their home," Jackson said. "I wouldn't be in a home without one."