ECONOTES : For Those With Inner Air Problems

It’s spring cleaning time, which calls for a broom, bucket and--if you want to do more than just stir the dust mites around--a good air filter.

“We used to worry about pollution outside and think if you went indoors it was clean,” says Bob Senn of Honeywell Consumer Products. “Now the Environmental Protection Agency says that indoor air is often much worse than outside.”

That’s because carpeting, draperies and upholstered furniture are veritable pollution machines. And that’s in addition to pet dander, cooking fumes, dust mites, mold spores from plants and hundreds of other offending particulates.

The easiest kind of filter to maintain is the HEPA (high-efficiency particulate arresting) filter. Long used in hospitals, HEPA air cleaners are available at medical supply stores, drugstores and some supermarkets.