Do air purifiers work against "Novel Coronavirus"? That's the question many people ask themselves when they look at the air purifier they bought to combat smog but haven't used in a long time.

On the morning of February 16, in accordance with the requirements of Academician Zhong Nanshan, honorary President of Guangdong Indoor Environmental Hygiene Industry Association, and the current severe situation of fighting against COVID-19 in Wuhan, an expert group working meeting was held through wechat to discuss the status and role of air purifiers in epidemic prevention and control.

Environmental engineering experts from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the rockets li-an hou, a professor at the university of military engineering academician, researcher at the Chinese center for disease control and prevention wear since I wish air purification, Shanghai jiaotong university expert professor Wu Jixiang, academician zhong nanshan core team members of virus expert Dr Chou jung, guangdong institute of microbiology xiao-bao xie, a researcher at the national air purification products quality supervision and inspection center, director shao-ping du Yang Guandong, general manager of Zhongke Testing Co., LTD. (Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Gu Shiming, executive president of Guangdong Indoor Environmental Health Industry Association, attended the network conference.

Gu Shiming, President of CCPIT Xiamen, said that the COVID-19 situation in China was grim. Honorary President Zhong Nanshan was invited to Beijing to report to the leaders of The State Council. Before leaving, he called and once again asked ccPIT Xiamen to act quickly and give full play to its expertise in air purification and environmental elimination in the air cleaning industry to support epidemic prevention in the affected areas. This meeting is to fulfill academician Zhong Nanshan's requirements and seriously study how to better play the due role of air purification technology products in epidemic prevention and control.

Dr. Zhou Rong, who has been on the frontline of the fight against COVID-19 in Wuhan, Huanggang and Daye of Hubei province since the outbreak, introduced the situation of the fight against COVID-19 in the epidemic areas and the urgent demand for air purification products in the epidemic areas, especially how to deal with the "secondary pollution" of air purifiers used in the epidemic areas. Dr. Zhou Rong, as a virus expert, gave a clear opinion that the "secondary pollution" caused by viruses on the filter screen of air purifiers could be prevented and controlled, requiring the Association to draft a guide for the use of air purifiers as soon as possible, so as to guide the use of units and families to adopt effective management and use methods.

Li-an hou academician hospital were introduced according to the epidemic area with "air microorganism directly kill the virus in the air quality assurance system" technology research progress of the project, such as advice to "building, rebuilding and conditional hospital increase air quality guarantee system", the air purification technology and equipment into the forefront of resistance to disease, Play a due role in nosocomial infection prevention and control and improvement of patients' respiratory environment.

Dr. Dai Zizhu gave a detailed introduction to the COVID-19 protection guidelines issued by the Joint Prevention and Control mechanism of The State Council, and fully affirmed the status and role of air purifiers in epidemic prevention and control from the perspective of disease prevention and control.

Professor Wu Jixiang stressed that for the air purifiers entering the hospital, the association should strictly check the pass, classification management, should give priority to the use of air purifiers with sterilization function in the ward; To highlight the classification management of air purifier purification performance, so that better air purifiers into the epidemic area.

Xie Xiaobao, Du Shaoping and Yang Guandong, three directors of testing institutions, also made speeches respectively on the detection, classification management, industry guidelines and the replacement and abandonment of air purifier filters.

Experts at the meeting called for more air purifiers to be put into the front line of the fight against COVID-19 in Wuhan under the premise of classification and guidance of the association.

Studies have shown that harmful substances such as bacteria and viruses in indoor air often cannot exist alone, and are usually transmitted by carriers such as droplets and aerosols attached to suspended particles in the air. What we generally call filtering is not filtering bacteria and viruses themselves, but the carriers they carry. The core filter of air purifiers sold on the market is basically HEPA filter element, whose filtering effect on 0.3 micron particles is no less than 99.97%. In the case of the popular N95 mask on the market, the number 95 means that the mask has a 95 percent filtering effect on 0.3 micron particles. So if N95 masks can filter out viruses, so can qualified air purifiers.