Air high quality in Southern California is dangerously unhealthy due to the fires. Our reporter got down to construct an air filter — in a mode the EPA praised, utilizing solely issues she already had at residence.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The fires in Los Angeles have spewed smoke over the town for days. Air filters in houses might help, however what if you do not have one? NPR’s Alejandra Borunda covers well being and local weather change, and she or he got down to see if individuals might make filters themselves.
ALEJANDRA BORUNDA, BYLINE: The quick reply is sure. You’ll be able to construct a DIY air filter in lower than half-hour with stuff that you just most likely have already got in your own home.
ELLIOTT GALL: My identify is Elliott Gall, and I’m an affiliate professor within the division of mechanical and supplies engineering at Portland State College.
BORUNDA: He is the designer of this air filter referred to as The Cocoon. Graduate pupil Brett Stinson explains.
BRETT STINSON: It is fairly easy. It is only a cloth filter. That is cotton batting and a field fan.
BORUNDA: Mainly, only a tube of cloth connected to a field fan. Gall says it is an outdated know-how referred to as a baghouse filter.
GALL: And it primarily is a chunk of cloth that you just drive air via that filters out particulate matter.
BORUNDA: To me, it appears like a blobby, puffy, 8-foot-long sausage. But it surely works virtually in addition to air filters you should buy. Right here within the lab up in Portland, we load up a sealed bedroom-sized space with smoke and begin The Cocoon operating. Inside about 10 or quarter-hour, the air is just about clear. And I stay in Southern California. Proper now, the air is smoky. So this weekend, my accomplice and I got down to construct a Cocoon for ourselves.
That is Ali (ph) and Alex’s (ph) try and make a field fan filter.
Gall despatched me a PDF with directions. First, we monitor down a typical field fan, like those they promote in nearly each ironmongery shop. Then you definately want a giant piece of cloth that is 72″ broad.
Here is the measuring tape.
That is vital as a result of that dimension will match neatly on the fan.
(SOUNDBITE OF MEASURING TAPE PULLING AND RETRACTING)
BORUNDA: Gall used cotton batting just like the stuff within quilts.
However we do not have that, clearly. I am not a quilter. What we do have – and so they say is OK – is sheets. Cotton or linen work greatest, they are saying.
We discovered an outdated, full-sized flat sheet behind a cupboard. That was excellent. Greater ones might work, too, however you’d have to chop them down. So then we took the sheet, and we folded it in half lengthwise, like an enormous scorching canine bun. After which I connected the 2 lengthy sides collectively very rigorously with duct tape.
(SOUNDBITE OF DUCT TAPE PULLING)
BORUNDA: You find yourself with this massive, lengthy tube. And you then take some rubber bands or hair ties or no matter and twist them round one finish of the tube – such as you’re placing it in somewhat ponytail.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUBBER BAND SNAPPING)
ALEX: That works.
BORUNDA: And now we’re on to the final step. We slip the open finish of the material tube across the fringe of the field fan and duct tape it in place.
(SOUNDBITE OF DUCT TAPE PULLING)
BORUNDA: However be sure you do not make this error.
I lined up the controls. In order that’s somewhat bit foolish. That was my mistake. Do not do this.
Then we flip it on.
(SOUNDBITE OF FAN WHIRRING)
BORUNDA: Ooh. And now we have inflated an enormous blue tube.
It poofs up and appears precisely like a type of slinky tubes little youngsters crawl via. Gall says it really works greatest when you can run it in rooms that are not too massive, like in a single day in a bed room, for instance. And for now, we have it operating nonstop.
For NPR Information, I am Alejandra Borunda.
(SOUNDBITE OF J. COLE SONG, “FORBIDDEN FRUIT”)
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its remaining kind and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could fluctuate. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.
