Air Quality & How to Choose an Air Filter

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Air Quality & How to Choose an Air Filter

Ever wonder how to choose an air filter? Air filtration expert Vinny Lobdell shares tips for choosing the best, highest quality air filter + explains why air filters are a necessary part of a healthy home.

Vinny Lobdell

Vinny Lobdell

Co-Founder of Intellipure

Vinny Lobdell is the president of HealthWay - a family run business specializing in customized air cleaning systems for major hospitals, hotels and commercial office buildings. He is also the Co-Founder of Intellipure, the most effective home air-filtration product on the market.

Transcript

Maria Marlowe: [00:00:35] Welcome back to the Happier and Healthier podcast. Today’s guest is Vinny Lobdell, the president of HealthWay, which is a family run business specializing in customized air cleaning systems for major hospitals, hotels and commercial office buildings. And he’s also the co-founder of Intel, a pure a maker of a home air filtration system. So I was introduced to Vinny by an earlier guest on the podcast. Max Goldberg, who swore by the intel a pure air purifier. And now, Max, if you know him or if you listen to the episode, he is like mister organic, mister, super clean. And he’s really conscious of anything that’s coming in contact with him and that’s going to impact his health. So I really trust and value his opinion. He spoke really highly of it. So I said, OK, I want to be introduced to Vinny and see what he has to say. So he put in touch and we really hit it off talking about all things air quality and pollution. So I knew I had to have him on the show to talk about the importance of clean air, especially in our homes. The Environmental Protection Agency has found that indoor air is often two to five times more polluted than the air outside.

Maria Marlowe: [00:02:06] Now, imagine if you’re living in a heavily polluted city like New York or L.A.that is pretty toxic. Now, as you learn from this episode, air quality does have a large impact on our health and not just our lungs or breathing. Poor air quality can also have a serious affect on our cardiovascular system in particular. And it could even lead to other minor problems like itchy and watery eyes. Headaches, migraines, things like that. It can really impact our overall health, which is why it’s so important to make sure that we have clean, healthy air to breathe. As you’ll learn in this episode, I’ve recently become increasingly aware and concerned about air pollution. So Vinny was nice enough to send over his and help pure air filter. And I’m currently in the process of moving, so I haven’t set it up yet. But once I get settled, I will set it up and let you guys know how it goes over on Instagram. And I figured that after listening to this episode, many of you would want to purchase a high quality air filter. So I asked him to provide you with a discount code and he happily obliged. So if you want to try and tell a pure air filter after you listen to this episode, use the code happier h a p p i e r for 10 percent off your order. Now let’s get into the interview.

Maria Marlowe: [00:03:29] Many thanks so much for being here Vinny. It’s an honor.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:03:31] Thank you for having me.

Maria Marlowe: [00:03:34] Sure. Of course. So one of the things that we bonded over, we were introduced by mutual friends and we bonded over our love of clean air. So to kick us off, I’d love for you to share a little bit of your backstory on how you got so interested and involved with delivering clean air.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:03:50] Yeah. So it’s it’s been kind of a lifelong passion. We’ve been involved in the business. I was really kind of born into it. My father was involved in clean air and technology back in the early 80s when no one really cared about it or we really only people that had severe allergies or asthma had a very serious illness, looked at clean air and he developed a little filter to go on a wood stove. And that’s basically how we started. And then in the late 90s, we joined forces and really started looking at how clean air impacts human health and how the built environment and how we live in the built environment impacts our health. And so we developed the HealthWay brand, which is our first which is the parent brand of Intel up here. And we really looked at air quality from every standpoint, whether it’s a commercial building, whether it’s a hospital, whether it’s a home, and really looked at how different pollutants impact human health. And so we really spent all of our time and all of our resources on developing products and solutions that really make a true impact inside of homes, buildings, offices, etc.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:04:52] And now, which really exciting about the spaces as it’s grown tremendously, it’s it’s such a key component of wellness. We looked at how we can give people the ability to actually monitor it and see it firsthand. And I think it’s just an exciting time because we. Oh, no, that you know. Unfortunately, we know that air quality is a number one health concern facing humans. Air pollution is the number one health concern facing humans, according to the World Health Organization. And for us, we feel like we’re really focused on delivering true solutions to meet that challenge. So it’s been a passion of mine ever since I was a young man. And now as I’ve gotten older, we just really continue to focus all of our effort and time on really delivering true solutions. So right over 50 countries to kind of evaluate it and be involved with it.

Maria Marlowe: [00:05:32] Yeah. And I know you have a great air cleaning system, which we’ll talk about in a minute. But I want to get back to what are some of the concerns of constantly being exposed to air pollution? I think there’s certainly more knowledge around it now, but I think it’s also not such a huge concern. I think people are more focused on, OK, healthy food and clean water, getting a water filter, things like that. But I still feel like air is something not everyone thinks of initially and being something really important and crucial to our health.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:06:04] Yeah, that’s that’s a great point. I think the biggest challenge there. A lot of the times we can’t see what’s in our air. And so the biggest challenge you have is cleaning the water. People are doing that. They can taste the difference. They can taste chlorine. They can taste the water samples that most people really good air quality or better quality, temperature and humidity. They either feel it’s too warm or too hot or too humid. So the biggest challenge of air quality nowadays is these ultra-fine particles. We found that ultra-fine particles and its education, as you mentioned, these ultra fine particles are making people sick. So cardiovascular disease, stroke, heart attack, dementia, fertility are all being linked to particular pollution. And so if you look at it from a standpoint of really what’s in our air, you have VLCC these gases and odors, which people can notice in some cases because they smell. And then you have these particles in the smallest particles, greater bloodstream. And these are the things that make humans sick. And then we have the bio aerosols. So if people always ask oh boy. Everyone gets sick on an airplane, it’s really not the air pollution in a plane. It’s approximately we sit next to someone and someone’s sick and they sneeze and then that’s transmitted.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:07:08] I agree that, you know, the air quality side of things and air pollution in general, there’s a lot more media coverage on it now. But I think you’ll see over the next few years, just because of the linkage to all the diseases, that air quality is just such a major component to our health and wellness. And looking at it from a tactical standpoint and seeing the different levels of pollution, your home with air sensors is really coming to the forefront. So I think you’ll start to see that with all the new homes that are being built as well.

Maria Marlowe: [00:07:33] I mean, when I first started getting interested in air quality and just even thinking about it, this was probably one of my first apartments. I was living in New York City in my apartment, faced the back of the building like an alley. And it was like a very small studio. And like, I just always wanted to get fresh air. And, you know, the windows only open like two or three inches in there. So I would always add the windows would constantly be open, but I would notice my white window cells would become black in the matter like a day or two with all this like dust and whatever particulate matter. I don’t know what it was, pollution. And so I’m just thinking like, OK, this is what I’m breathing in. You know, and that’s when I started thinking about it. And yeah, I think that the problem is we don’t really see it. And I think there you know, we know New York City and L.A., we know these cities are polluted. But it doesn’t I don’t know because we’re not constantly face to face with it. I think it becomes like an afterthought. And I know that the indoor air apparently is worse than outdoor air. Right.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:08:35] Yes. All indoor air is made up of our door air. Right. And what happens is, is the EPA basically states that the indoor air quality is three to five times up to 100 times worse than the outdoor air. And so when you said that you would open a window, you basically you’re letting in all that. You say fresh air. It’s actually polluted air. And so in a lot of the new buildings that you’re seeing built all over the world, they don’t allow for any windows to be opened because they want to control the variables as much as possible. So what you have is an issue where you want to get some outside air and you’re bringing that polluted air. But the inside air, what happens is we’ve we made our homes, we made our built environments so efficient nowadays. Why? Because energy costs that we’ve basically encapsulated in created a time bomb of pollutants in the home. So our activity, how we walk and carpets and all the things we do basically get everything moving around in the space. And if we don’t have the right ventilation, if we’re not cleaning with the right green cleaning products, if we’re not if we’re using candles, all these things add to the pollution. And so really looking at our behaviors and our built environment is a critical component of health and wellness inside the space. So it’s not just cleaning the earth. How do we live inside that space? And how are we ventilating our homes? And what products are we using to add or subtract from the pollution problem?

Maria Marlowe: [00:09:47] Yes. And what are some tips that you can give us then, in terms of keeping our air quality as good at, you know, the best that can be in terms of what we’re using and what we’re doing in our home here?

Vinny Lobdell: [00:09:58] Well, we always say that you should certainly be using like a green environmentally friendly cleaning product because a lot of the pollutants inside the home you’re creating from sprays and chemicals that we use to clean. And that’s a major No-No. And we always say you should not use candles. We always like to use them, but you should not use candles. Looking at the humidity in your home, one of the big issues, mycotoxins molds that make people sick is if you have a high humidity environment, you can check in your bathroom. You can see the light mold growing in certain spaces if the humidity is too high. You have to get rid of that stuff. We also recommend, you know, hard surfaces instead of carpeting. That’s what we were kind of firm believers in. Hard surfaces are certainly a plus over carpeting and, you know, the softer surfaces which can store and harbor certain things.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:10:47] And then certainly if you have a highly efficient home looking at a ERV and energy recovery ventilator or heat recovery ventilator, which would bring in fresh air from the outside, like you were talking about New York City. And at some level filtering it. So you’re getting exchange, you’re bringing in a lot of fresh air. And so they just recirculate it. And we always recommend as well does the EPA is cleaning the air with a high quality air cleaning system. That’s really crucial that you are scrubbing the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week to create the cleanest, healthiest home similar to drinking water. Right. I mean, we don’t just filter. We don’t just drink the water. We filter all the water we drink. And it’s the same with the air. We should be filtering the air at all times.

Maria Marlowe: [00:11:25] Yeah. And I do want to get into the filters and how do we choose the going to filter? But I just wanna step back for one second and talk about AQI, which is the air quality index. You know, this is something I look at now. Whenever I’m traveling, I’m always traveling somewhere. I like to look at AQI before I go somewhere. Because a lot of places in this world are very, very polluted, might you know, I’ve been to places where you can actually feel the pollution and you can see the pollution. You can smell the pollution. What in the AQI and why is it important? What should we be looking for and what can it tell us?

Vinny Lobdell: [00:12:00] Well, the AQI is really simple index for reporting daily air quality. So there’s sensors all over the world. And a lot of times you’ll see my telephone poles. People don’t realize it, but they’re actually measuring the air quality. And the AQI runs from 0 to 500 and it has different ranges. So zero to 50 is good air quality, 51 to one hundredth moderate air quality. And it continues to go up. So you in 300 and one to 500 is hazardous air quality, but it really focuses on the health effects you may experience then a few hours or days after breathing that polluted air. So cities have this and it basically gives you a readout of how certain pollutants and what certain pollutants are in the air. So it’s ground level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. And so they’re looking at how to change that and basically how they can add to that. But right now, that’s what it’s measuring and it’s giving you a numerical number that’s telling me where the levels of pollution are at a given time and that changes dramatically. Right. So in in L.A., you’ll see a major swing during rush hour traffic of the AQI. And what’s really interesting about the AQI is we can now tie this to indoor air and show what outside air is and what the air quality is inside your home and then show how much healthier you can make your space.

Maria Marlowe: [00:13:18] Right. So it’s something like is it two to five times higher in your home in an indoor space, something like that?

Vinny Lobdell: [00:13:25] Yeah. The EPA states that the air quality inside a home is two to five times higher than it is outside. We’ve created a really cool tool on our website where you can check your air quality. And what we’ve done is you just type in your zip code and that gives you the AQI and at times it actually multiplies it by four because paste it’s three to five times higher and it gives you general guess on what your air quality would be inside your home at this time.

Maria Marlowe: [00:13:53] Yeah, it’s so interesting. And one thing that is interesting and also it scared me at the same time looking at the AQI and learning more about it is that at those higher level, like you mentioned, they actually suggest certain groups of people don’t go outside, especially anyone with heart issue, for example, because the air is so unhealthy for them. And I think after this, the second or third level, it’s like, OK, some people are sensitive, more people are sensitive, more people are sensitive. And it’s just, you know, you would think, oh, air pollution, maybe it’s only affecting our lungs and maybe a respiratory issue. It actually affects a lot more than that.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:14:28] Oh, it affects our skin. We’re working with consulting with a company right now who’s very prominent skin care company, who’s looking at offering a line of air cleaning products because they’re now saying that these ultra fine particles are impacting their skin health. And so, you know, the skin is the largest, I think one of the largest organs. So it’s it’s these are the things that people don’t understand because they don’t see it. But now that the AQI has brought air quality to certainly made it much more prevalent, the same is happening with indoor air quality monitors so we can see at all times. But it impacts so many things other than just, you know, our lungs. It’s our brain. It’s our it’s our breathing. It’s sleep. It’s all these things,

Maria Marlowe: [00:15:07] So, all right, well, let’s say we figure out our AQI pretty high and we want to get an airfield there for our home, our apartment. I heard a lot about HEPA filter that they’re supposed to be really great, but I also heard that they’re not actually that bad. So can you explain what we should be looking for in an air filter? And is a HEPA filter good or what’s a better option?

Vinny Lobdell: [00:15:33] Well, something’s always better than nothing. The biggest challenge you have when evaluating a customers or a customer’s need is really understanding that all air quality problems are not the same. So what we try to do and how we educate on air quality is first understanding what the concerns are, what the issue someone’s having. So HEPA filter stands for high efficiency particle arrestor and what it tells you right inside that definition, what it’s doing, it’s arresting particles, which is one pollution category at a high efficiency. OK, so there’s three. Before we know what effective air cleaning is or what an effective air cleaner is, we really have to understand what’s in the air. Really simple. Three pollutant categories, particles of the first. They range from very, very small ultra-fine particles all the way to large particles. Second or VLCC are the about organic compounds of gases and odors that are prevalent that come from the off gassing of formaldehyde, from cheap furniture to paints the toxins. And the third is be aware of self molds, viruses, bacterium, fungi. So you have specifically about HEPA.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:16:28] HEPA’s capturing a high level of particles, a high efficiency of particles that challenge you have is that we call the big box HEPAs, the retail HEPAs that you’ll buy that are lower cost ones and they’re using the term happen. But in reality, they’re not achieving a HEPA efficiency. HEPA efficiency’s capturing particles at ninety nine point nine nine percent efficient at 0.3 micron to give you get that not to be too technical. So if I am, just please let me know. Now I like the technical. OK, so point three microns, 900 times smaller than the tip of the human hair. Give you an analogy. So it’s capturing those particles. But the challenge you have with happen and we do build HEPA products, we build HEPA for a lot other companies. The biggest challenge you have with HEPA is that although it’s very efficient, it’s has a limited impact, cleaning impact in this space, because for you to have an effective equity, you really need to exchange air rate. So it’s capturing a lot the first time through, but it’s not necessarily exchanging a lot of air. So it has a limited air cleaning impact. The second drawback with HEPA is it’s like a wall. You throw a million particles that it captures a lot of them. But it’s very hard for me to push air through that filter without making a lot of noise. So we know that a lot of consumers are concerned with noise of an air purifier. And so noise is a drawback of HEPA. You have to really push a lot of air through that filter to make an impact. And so we found that to do that, you have to have a very strong blower and motor which creates noise.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:17:42] The third drawback of our HEPA and any HEPA that’s made out there is that they collect a lot, but they’re not destroying anything. So mold by respecting fungi. If that filters that change timely, it’s called the breathe through phenomena that actually mold their spectrum. Fungi can breathe through that filter and can be dumped out through the space again. So that’s why you’ll see in hospitals when people go and change to HEPA filters, they wear masks and all that, because I’m not sure if there’s living organisms in it. And then the fourth drawback is limited filter effectiveness or lifetime filter effectiveness. So that filter is going to perform really good day one. And as it becomes more and more clogged, it reduces the cleaning impact. So the cleaning impacts, it greatly reduced over the life of that filter. And so we found that there are more there are better ways of handling air cleaning now than the standard mechanical filter like HEPA. If that gives you kind of an overview of the HEPA filter.

Maria Marlowe: [00:18:44] Yeah, that was actually very great because I feel like I really understand what some of the drawbacks are. You’ve explained it really well. So what are the better option then?

Vinny Lobdell: [00:18:54] Well, there are some good technologies out there. You probably heard some of these. We have an electrostatic precipitation concept, which basically is plates that as particles are positively and negatively charged. And so as particles go through this, it collects those particles. The biggest challenge we have an electrostatic precipitation is when those plates get dirty, there’s no charge and it loses its efficiency. So there’s a lot of maintenance to that. Where would HEPA you replace a filter? And that filter can be very costly if you’re running a machine 24 hours a day, seven days a week, electrostatic precipitation is less costly, but it’s more burdensome to maintain it, to clean those plates at all times. So it’s it’s a bit more of a challenge now when you’re looking at how to address air quality from a holistic standpoint, not just particulate. Then you’ll get other granular, you’ll add carbon or you’ll add zia light. You’ll have potassium that’s put into a filter, the handles, the high level gases and odors. And there’s now, you know, photo catalytic oxidation technology, which is you’ve seen them out there in some branded products that are currently being pushed quite heavily on the market. And photo catalytic oxidation is basically oxidative particles and gases and orders and bacteria. The biggest challenge we found with that and we’ve done a lot of work with photo catalytic is that the contact time and you have to collect things collecting things. And it has to excite the photo catalytic for it to really work in the challenge with most residential smaller portable air cleaners. It’s just not effective.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:20:14] Finally a technology A lot of people talk about ultraviolet radiation UV. And we built a lot of UV systems over the years for AIDS isolation, tuberculosis rooms. And I use a real common analogy where you’ll be as effective if the virus, mold, bacteria and fungi gets enough contact time and set in front of that UV bulb. The challenge you have is it’s just not effective residentially. So when we would do UV systems, we would put in AIDS isolation. It’s circular systems would run a UV bulb down, a duct duct of a home or a hospital. We’d have to monitor the airflow by the ball. We have to monitor the degradation of the ball. We have to monitor the shielding of particles. It’s too costly to do residentially. And there now are better ways to do that as well. So that gives you some other technologies. And we’ve developed their own technology after 35 years of innovation that we’ve put in the market at patented and pushed into the market that’s utilized instead of our brands that can touch on when you’re.

Maria Marlowe: [00:21:09] Yeah. So explain that your system is called the DFS system, right? Disinfecting filtration system. Oh yeah. Can you explain then what that is exactly. And why why we need it.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:21:22] So first and this is our company philosophy. We believe in all technologies. It’s the utilization of technologies that’s important. So if we look at a residential air cleaner, the goal was how do we create a system that removes the most from the air at the quietest level, has a significant long lifetime filter performance to help ease the maintenance costs for consumers and addresses all three pollutant categories. Most air clears the market today are set up to address one. Our goal was to address all three. So what we did on a research grant with the U.S. government, we developed DFS technology, disinfecting filtration system technology. And I’ll give you a side by side comparison with HEPA so you understand it. The four drawbacks I happen we discussed we compensate for the four drawbacks have happened. We have a 90 percent medical grade, 100 percent sealed, individually certified tested filter that’s handcrafted made right here in upstate New York. Then what we do is we’re actually we have an 18 Kv, the kilowatts low amperage system that’s tied in with that main filter. So we’re charging 100 percent of all particulates as it comes through that filter, clumping or making them larger to capture, easier to capture. And we’re collecting greater than ninety nine point nine nine percent at point 00/7, 40 times more efficient than any help in the world with much less pressure restriction. So we can move much more air through the filter at a much higher efficiency than any aircraft in the world guarantee. We show it side by side with any air cleaner. So essentially what we’re doing is clumping the particles making them bigger through the DFS zone and making it easier for that filter to capture with much less restriction, much lower restriction. So we can push a lot more aero quieter than any machine. That’s two of the benefits.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:23:01] The other benefit you have is within that 18 KV. We’ve collected everything inside that media filter. We’re then treating it with that 18 cavy, creating a form of micro bio spaces. So mold’s virus, bacteria just like you and I. They need nutrients to survive. We’ve created as high in that 18 cavy a zone where nothing can grow inside that filter so you don’t have to worry about breathe through. The other benefit is sensitive tech filter. As such, it’s much less dense. We get much greater lifetime filter performance. So the day you put a medical grade happen or the day you put a an upper filter in which is more efficient than the HEPA, you’re gonna get less and less effective air cleaning over the life of that filter with the DFS. We get much greater lifetime filter performance because the filter isn’t. We’re not relying simply just on the filter for that efficiency. We’re utilizing technology. So to sum it up again, much higher airflow at a lower decibel level noise, much more significant air cleaning efficiency, much greater lifetime filter performance. And then we’ve created an microbiomes this from the filter so nothing can grow. We’ve coupled that with a proprietary blend of gas and odor granules. So we also are getting a high level gas in order remediation and removal from that system. So we’ve addressed all three particle groups at the highest efficiency and we’ve done it in a way where we’re respecting the consumer by giving them the longest filter life in the industry as well.

Maria Marlowe: [00:24:28] Got it? Yeah. No, those are all great points because to be honest with you and I was first looking for I felt there I was going for the one that would look the nicest in my living room. And apparently that’s not a great criteria.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:24:43] That’s what a lot of people are doing. So there’s a huge air quality wave out there. Everyone’s talking about air quality now and why it’s so important. And so what a lot of companies are doing is as they realize that most people buy appliances on the way they look. Unfortunately, the way it works is the smaller the air purifier, likely, the less effective it’ll be because the science behind air cleaning is you need to move a lot of air, which creates noise to properly treat a space. And so it’s all about what are you buying that machine for? And if you’re buying it to truly make an impact on your health, then you have to look at the volume of air. It’s moving. The efficiency it’s moving in. Generally, those are larger machines.

Maria Marlowe: [00:25:18] Right. And so. Yeah. So can you explain then? Do we need if we have an apartment like in New York City apartment. Is that one silver and can reach the entire apartment like let’s say it’s a one bedroom or two bedroom or you need that filters and the different rooms. And then also for a house, if someone’s living in a large house, that they need multiple filters, you know, throughout.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:25:37] Excellent question. So I think I briefly touched on earlier not all air qualities, all air quality problems are the same and there’s certainly come in all different shapes and sizes. And so what we tell people is not one air conditioner work right in every application. So we basically you’ll find that portable air cleaners are only going to treat the air that can get to them. So they’re really meant for bedrooms, spaces for less than 10000 square feet. Really for to get effective cleaning, you need to change the air in a space three times an hour or greater. So if you buy a machine and you put a small machine in a, you know, three or four hundred square foot space and you put it on low speed, it’s virtually doing nothing. People are being fooled. You shouldn’t even buy a machine unless you got to run it to operate it in a way that’s going to be effective.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:26:19] So in a New York City apartment, portable air cleaners are perfect. You put a machine in a bedroom or in a space, you run it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Air cleaning is not an event. That continual process. You should filter air 24 hours a day, seven days a week and run that machine at the desirable noise preference for the consumer and you’ll get a good reduction in particles that’s called recirculating where basically recirculating air and filtering it through the system. Then for larger spaces, the way the market’s moving is certainly integrated systems which integrate directly into your HPC system or they integrate into a building management system. It’s a commercial building and that’s why you’ll see with our range of solutions, we have products for each individual application because ultimately what we’re trying to do is solve a problem for a consumer. We’re not trying to just sell a product and have it sit next to their bed and have it not do anything. We’re really into creating real solutions. And so for home, we would recommend if they heat and cool with a furnace or an AC system to install a system at point of entry, which is filtering all the air throughout the home. Now, people that are highly sensitive in most cases we do this often they’ll install a whole house system which is filtering all the air that’s coming into the space. And also put a portable unit in the area. They spend the most time for high level circulation, basically. We can create a class and clean room inside someone’s home and make it particle free.

Maria Marlowe: [00:27:40] Wow. Yeah. And you’ve touched on this. You and thought a lot of these systems and hospitals and even hotels now. Right.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:27:48] Yeah. You know, with our sister brand is called pure wellness. And Pure Wellness is if you stayed behind a Hilton, a Marriott globally, we’ve got about 5000 rooms at this point and it’s growing rapidly. We do the pure wellness room process and these are machines are utilized in all these rooms at the highest level to create that experience. So whether you’re staying in Tokyo or Taiwan or Toronto or New York City, you can rely on a consistent wellness experience. Well, on the road, which is a major challenge, and we work with hospitals and commercial office buildings all over the world as well. And basically we work for the engineering team to see what the issue is. We design a system specifically for that issue. And then we commission that system so our machines can be found at some of the most mission critical locations around the world. And we’ve basically taken that technology and adapted it to our residential portable in inline air cleaning systems to provide that same level of air cleaning that those people have now for the home.

Maria Marlowe: [00:28:48] You know, and I think it’s something that we don’t even think about. I had Max from Living Max on the podcast recently, and he was talking about how that hotel room. They offered the windows don’t open. And so you’re staying in a room where it had that same stale air for God knows how long. So it is really important that when you’re traveling to often try and find places that are going to have some higher standards in terms of health and wellness initiative and look for ones that are filtering the air that you can open the windows.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:29:17] Yeah, that’s your if you go to pureroom.com, you can find out all the locations globally that actually have Pure Rooms. And what you’ll find is it’s not simply just cleaning the air if we want to create the healthiest environment possible. We have to look at our habits and how we interact with our built environments. And that’s what’s really crucial. And we’re developing software now that will give people a real idea of how they can see their built environments and see how their activities impact their built environments. Results from ultimately the goal will be that data will be mined so we can give people a real understanding of when they’re interacting with their built environment, what their activities are doing and how it impacts your health. And based on that, our machines, our hardware will then talk to this at a hotel, in an office building or at your home area and give you a real clear idea of how you can make a better impact in your space.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:30:05] I’ll give you a real quick example on that with the AQI, which you brought up. We can actually know at all times what the outside air quality is with our sensing. We put the sensing in the home. It’ll actually tell you, Maria, bedroom number three has a high level of the VOCs and it’ll send a push notification. Your phone, you can see that. And based on that, if you decide to do something about it, I’ll tell you. Great. And they’ll say, hey, but the air quality in New York today, the AQI is good. Open a window, bring in some fresh outside air, or if there’s Mold in, your bathroom or if there’s a high humidity in your bathroom. If the humidity in your bathroom is high turn on your ventilation fan. So our goal is to give people the right amount of information and knowledge to empower them to make good decisions in how they live in their spaces.

Maria Marlowe: [00:30:47] So interesting and fascinating what technology can help us do so. Are there any questions that I have an app that you think we should know about air and air quality or air filtration?

Vinny Lobdell: [00:30:58] Well, I think what people really have to understand when it comes to air quality is not all not all problems are the same. And so for us, it’s and I think for any responsible company is really having the consumer understand what they’re trying to accomplish in their cleaning system and all of us. This isn’t something where just New York City and L.A., 70 percent of Americans live in highly polluted environments.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:31:20] So this is Salt Lake City, Utah. This is Denver, Colorado, where you think mountains and skiing. It’s a it’s a major, major issue. And I think that what people have to realize is that they should really understand what it is they’re trying to accomplish before they purchase something and get the right information. And everything’s about customer experience. Right. We want to give people the best for their money. And I think you’ll find that with a little bit of education and the right customer service, they can find the solution.

Maria Marlowe: [00:31:46] Awesome. The one question that I like to ask all of my guests is if you have and it doesn’t have to be. Maybe it is. Maybe it’s not. But it doesn’t have to be air quality specific. If you have just one tip or piece of advice for our listeners and how they can live a happier and healthier life, what would that be?

Vinny Lobdell: [00:32:05] Don’t take things personally. I think the key to life, if it’s just a spiritual or if it’s is this, don’t take things personally. I think we get too tied to that. And I think that I’ve tried to live my life in a way that, you know, if you’re out there doing anything in life, you’re going to have a lot of critics. And just to not take things personally and focus on your goal and just keep working towards it. And I think that’s the same with our health habits. And I mean anything. It’s just don’t take things personally. Focus on what you’re trying to accomplish and be the best version of yourself. And if you can do that, I think the sky’s the limit.

Maria Marlowe: [00:32:35] I think that’s a great piece of advice. Well, thank you so much for being on the show and sharing about air quality. That’s really a very fascinating subject. And if anyone wants to learn more about how pure you can hide to and tell a pure dot com and anywhere else, people should check you guys out.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:32:54] Yeah, I mean, we’re really growing globally. And so intellipure.com, I always tell people to check it out. Put your zip code search in there and you can actually get an idea of what your quality is today. And then pure room.com. If you’re traveling and you want to experience the best night’s sleep on the road, that’s a great way to be able to do that. So it works. They learn about that program. And I know that Max and several of his friends have stayed in rooms and really had a great experience as well.

Maria Marlowe: [00:33:22] Thanks for being on the show.

Vinny Lobdell: [00:33:22] Sure. Well, thanks so much.

Maria Marlowe: [00:33:28] If you’re interested in your health. And I’m assuming you are because you’re listening to this podcast. Then you definitely want to think about your air quality if you’re already eating organic foods and drinking high quality purified water. Then the next step is to really look at your air and the way that you can gain control over your air. Besides her moving to a less polluted city, which is out of the question for a lot of us. The next best thing you can do is ensure that your indoor environments, that you’re really paying attention and cleaning the air, they’re the way to do that is with a high quality air filter like and IntelliPure. So for anyone listening who wants a high quality air filter, I highly encourage you to check out Intellipure. And if you do, be sure to use the code happier, h a p p i e r to get 10 percent off. So thank you, Vinny for offering that to the listeners of the happier and healthier podcast.

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