Hong Kong tests find half of home air purifiers ‘slow’ at removing toxic formaldehyde
- Consumer Council tests of 10 air purifiers also find some manufacturers exaggerated particulate filtration effectiveness
Half of the air purifiers tested by Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog were “exceedingly slow” in removing a toxic gas emitted by building materials in homes.
The Consumer Council on Monday added some manufacturers had exaggerated how effective their machines were in filtering out particulates from the atmosphere.
The council appealed to air purifier distributors to include the “Clean Air Delivery Rate Value” (CADR) – the rate at which devices can deliver air scrubbed of pollutants – as a standard.
“It is easier for consumers to compare based on the CADR … so that when they look at different kinds of air purifiers, they can have a better benchmark to look into,” said council chief executive Gilly Wong Fung-han.
“Of course, it is a little bit complex because the CADR requirements among different country standards are different, but still, if you are from the same market, following the same standards, it is easier to compare the performance of different models.”
The council said it and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department tested 10 air purifiers, some of which did not display their CADR results.
