A B.C. program is helping vulnerable residents breathe easier with homemade air cleaners

Rick Medley first made a DIY air cleaner at a workshop two years ago, and has been using it in his home ever since.

Medley lives in the Vancouver area, where skies often become smoky due to wildfires. Four years ago, he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) — a lung disease that causes scarring and makes it difficult to breathe. He has been doing everything he can to manage his lung health since then.

Medley was struck by how effective the homemade filters were, how simple it was to put them together, and how many particles there are in our air.

“Especially … in urban communities, we have all kinds of pollutants from exhaust and our industrial mills,” Medley said. “All these things are dangerous for us.”

Researchers from the B.C. Lung Foundation are helping community members most vulnerable to wildfire smoke, like Medley, make their own air cleaners for a fraction of the cost of commercial ones — hoping to arm them not just with the devices, but knowledge about how to protect themselves in the face of a changing climate.

Studies from the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that simulated the effects of wildfire smoke show the DIY filters are about as effective as commercial ones at pulling particles out of the air — and at a fraction of the cost. Store-bought air purifiers can sell for a couple hundred dollars, while the B.C. Lung Foundation’s design costs less than $100 to make.

The program started as a pilot in 2023 in the Vancouver area and sessions have since been expanded to Kelowna and parts of the Okanagan. The goal is to help seniors, people who are medically vulnerable to smoke and those who might not be able to otherwise afford standard air filters, says Anne-Marie Nicol, the scientific director of the Healthy Indoor Environments program at the B.C. Lung Foundation, who runs the cleaner-making sessions.

“Solutions aren’t always equitable … so there’s still this group of people that we need to be conscious about,” says Nicol. 

How it works

The homemade devices are uncomplicated, says Nicol. They use a fan — which has to be 75 watts or higher — to pull indoor air through a filter, where debris is trapped.

The filters can effectively clean a space that’s about 300 to 400 square feet.

Nicol and her team use MERV 13 filters because they’re of a high enough grade that they’ll pull dangerous particulates out of the air, but low enough that the filter won’t overheat the fan. 

The air cleaners don’t just pull wildfire smoke particulate matter out of the air either — they grab dust, pet hair, pollen and some viruses and bacteria. 

Nicol says no maintenance is needed until the filter starts looking visibly dirty and discoloured.

When the filter is brown or grey or smells like smoke, the EPA says, it’s time to switch it out.

Medley lives on a main road with lots of traffic and says he can tell his air cleaners are hard at work based on how often he needs to change his filters. 

“Within three weeks, [the filters] were just absolutely black,” Medley says. 

Smoke harms lung, heart and brain health

For years, research has shown that smoke damages the heart and lungs of those who breathe it in.

Stephanie Cleland is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and a research scientist at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. She says breathing in smoke for days or weeks on end puts people at heightened risk of asthma and heart attacks.

“These [are] really acute, severe events that can send you to the hospital and even increase your risk of death,” says Cleland.

But new research shows that smoke can also affect the brain. A study co-authored by Cleland in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal found that people exposed to medium or heavy-density smoke performed worse on a brain-training game, while another 2022 study found that students in the U.S. performed worse on standardized tests in years with more wildfire smoke.

WATCH | How to stay safe from wildfire smoke:

Staying safe amid wildfire smoke

Wildfire smoke blanketed large parts of British Columbia this week. So how do you stay safe in the smoke?
Maurice Katz breaks down some ways to keep you and your loved ones healthy.

Smoke exposure during pregnancy can also lead to health complications for unborn babies, according to Cleland.

Keeping doors and windows closed on smoky days can help people breathe more easily inside, but it’s not a perfect solution, said Nicol. Many air systems, such as portable air conditioning units, draw outdoor air inside and don’t always have adequate filters to block smoke particles.

“As a result, those systems pull air in and they pull the smoke in with them,” says Nicol.

Arming people with information

Nicol says participants in the DIY air cleaner workshops leave with a little less climate anxiety than they came in with, armed with knowledge about how to protect themselves during fire season.

As wildfire season in B.C. has grown more intense over the past few years, so have people’s worries about the possible health effects of smoke.

Participants can talk to public health providers like Nicol about how to manage heat and smoke in their homes, and meet other people in their area who are also worried about climate impacts. 

After learning how to make the DIY air filters two summers ago, Rick Medley decided to use his newfound knowledge to help others keep their lungs healthy, too.

Using his own time and funds, Medley has made about 30 filters, which he donated to kids with severe asthma. Any extras were doled out to people with respiratory issues at a Better Breathers club Medley attends, or to the B.C. Lung Foundation. He also keeps the materials for a few more air cleaners on hand, in case a neighbour might need one. 

Medley hopes others across the country learn about their own air quality and take steps to keep themselves healthy.

“So many people don’t realize how many other things out there impair our lung health,” he says. 

“We can’t avoid [pollutants], but at least be aware of them and … give your lungs a break.”