One concern in homes with ferrets is air cleaners.  People want them to
be not only effective but safe.  In our family with some of us having
allergists and a few others having pulmonologists we have often echoed
the advice of those experts: that is is usually best to avoid ionizing
air cleaners because some simply are not safe enough for humans in terms
of ozone created, which also means that they could potentially be even
harder on ferret lungs.  Ozone may smell thunder storm fresh but it is
a pollutant.  One quote from the CR article, "Experts agree that ozone
concentration more than 80 ppb for eight hours of longer can cause
coughing, wheezing, and chest pain while worsening asthma and deadening
your sense of smell.  It also raises sensitivity to pollen, mold and
other respiratory allergy triggers, and may cause permanent lung damage."
 
Of the 7 models CU tested only 2 ionizing air cleaners were recommended,
but the other 5 were judged to have poor performance and in some cases
also to create high ozone levels (page 25).  Another quote in the
article, this time from Jonathan Samet, MD, the chairman of the
epidemiology department of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health, "We can't guarantee safety at any ozone level, so it makes sense
not to contaminate your living space."
 
There is also the problem that some of these can poof out all of the dust
in them in one burst if there is a power outage, or sometimes even in a
brown out.  (Useful to have a spouse who was once involved in the design
of a clean room that was stricter than many operating rooms -- and who
swears by hepa filter air cleaners as do the allergists and
pulmonologists used by the family members...)
 
It turns out that there is even more to consider.  I didn't know this
but ozone inside can react with the terpenes in cleaning products and
air freshers to create formaldehyde which is a carcinogen, and the
particulate size involved is also a concern.
 
Here is this new resource for you:
Consumer Reports:
May 2005
page 9 (Sharper Image ordered by court to cover CU court costs since
inaccuracies were not found in reporting on an air cleaner they sell)
and pages 22 - 25 tests of air clearers
 
They write that they also plan a more extensive air cleaner report late
this year.
 
Ferrets are sensitive enough to tobacco smoke that they are used in some
studies of its effects, and there have been ferret-list past reports of
some who reacted badly to certain air cleaners.  It would be a shame if
people trying to counteract such effects, or even just trying to reduce
the smell of ferret in their homes endangered the health of the four
footed and two footed family members instead.
[Posted in FML issue 4838]