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The Fix - What's the Best Way to Clean the Air in a House?  

A. Air researchers talk about the Rule of 1,000: anything released indoors is about 1,000 times more likely to be breathed in than something released outdoors.

"It doesn't take a lot of something released indoors to cause exposure," said Dr. Kirk Smith, a professor of global environmental health at the University of California, Berkeley. "Even in California, which has among the strictest controls on smoking and among the lowest smoking rates in an industrial country, a significant fraction of total pollution exposure is from smoking."

Indoor pollution is, in a word, potent. And our attempts to combat it often make it worse.

"People think incense or candles are beneficial, but of course they're not," Dr. Smith said. "It's just combustion, and the smoke has the same health effects as cigarette smoke . . .

But filter-based cleaners can be effective at removing pollen, dust or smoke, which have larger particles. Dr. Shelly Miller, an air-quality researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said she bought a HEPA (or high-efficiency particulate air) filter-and-fan-based cleaner that helped combat forest-fire smoke at her parents' home in San Bernardino Valley, Calif.

Before buying the unit, which cost about $80, she said, she made sure it had a clean-air delivery rating (or CADR) certification from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which measures the amounts of pollen, dust or smoke the model can remove. . . .

In general, Dr. Miller said, she doesn't advocate the use of air cleaners, which she considers the equivalent of using a broom to clean up M & M's spilled on the floor. Or, as Dr. Smith put it: "The best way to not have polluted air is to not have sources of pollution in the house."

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