It’s official – Wear A+, Respiray’s wearable air purifier, has been rigorously tested for its effectiveness in protecting against pollen, dust mite and pet dander allergies, and it came out shining! The study was conducted by the European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation (ECARF) alongside the Institute of Allergology at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin and published in the journal Allergologie Select. It concluded that Wear A+ provides effective allergy relief, making it “a very useful device for avoiding indoor allergens in a new way”, and that users “might be able to avoid allergy symptoms without the need for medication”.
Setting the scene – causes, effects and treatment of allergic rhinitis
The paper, called Individual wearable air purifier protects against pollen, house dust mite, and cat allergens: Report from an allergen exposure chamber, begins by giving some background information, establishing that allergic rhinitis and allergic rhinoconjunctivitis affect 10–40% of the world’s population and describing the causes of these conditions; the study distinguishes between indoor allergens such as pet dander and house dust mites and outdoor pollen, which, unlike its indoor counterparts and their year-round effects, is a seasonal allergen.
Allergic rhinitis can cause an array of symptoms including nasal congestion and sneezing, while also having a broader effect on quality of life through sleep disorders, decreased productivity and missed days and work or school, leading to an economic cost to society numbering billions of dollars. For these reasons, alongside the fact that people with a sensitivity to the allergens tested often rely on medication and are seeking non-medical allergy relief options to alleviate their symptoms, the researchers evaluated Respiray Wear A+ as an alternative treatment for avoiding airborne allergens.
How was the study carried out?
The ECARF research tested 23 patients with a birch pollen allergy, 37 with a house dust mite allergy and 41 with a cat dander allergy by isolating them in an allergen exposure chamber – a clinical environment where air quality and allergen exposure levels can be controlled. With the temperature set at 20 °C and relative humidity at 55%, the allergen being tested for each patient was introduced at a level that would be expected to produce an allergic response. After a 20-minute acclimatization phase without any allergens, subjects stayed in the chamber for two separate sessions of one hour, six days apart – once with no protection and a second time while wearing Wear A+.
For each one-hour session, the subjects were asked to evaluate a list of nasal and eye symptoms from 0 (no symptoms) to 3 (severe symptoms), giving a total symptom score. The scores they gave for the first period without Wear A+ were then compared to their scores for the second period when they were wearing the device, along with changes in personal well-being and forced expiratory volume (a measure of lung function). Patients also received a safety call 24 hours after each exposure to account for any delayed allergic reactions.
The findings – does Wear A+ provide effective allergy relief?
The study found that yes, Respiray Wear A+ is effective when it comes to protecting against airborne allergies – in fact, the report stated that the majority of allergy medications “do not relieve the symptoms to this extent” and that “allergen-specific immunotherapy…hardly achieves such an effect”. For each allergen tested, the total symptom scores after each session were averaged for all patients, and then the percentage change from the first session to the second was calculated from these averages to evaluate the improvement in allergy symptoms. It was shown that Wear A+ produced an average improvement of 49% for birch pollen, 48% for house dust mites and a highly impressive 60% for cat dander. These statistics were analyzed and the improvement was found to be statistically significant.
According to the report, the “reduced severity of symptoms when using Respiray Wear A+ suggests that the concentration of allergens in the air has been reduced as a result of the filter in the device.” Through regular measurements during exposure, it was also found that patients’ symptoms increased more slowly over time and that well-being was clearly increased while using Wear A+. Additionally, there was a reduction in subjects reporting late reactions during the safety call after their session with the device.
What else does the study tell us?
In its discussion of the findings, the report highlighted the importance of interventions like Wear A+ that can “prevent allergens from coming into contact with the respiratory tract mucosa”, which can reduce reliance on pharmacological measures and prove preferable for many people living with airborne allergies. The continued prevalence in the Western industrialized world of these allergies, as well as allergy-induced diseases such as allergic asthma, emphasizes this importance. It also suggests that air purifiers, including Wear A+, “can serve as efficient IPMs [individual protection measures] not only against airborne allergens but also against air pollution”.
The study states that we can assume that wearing Wear A+ during pollen season will avoid most nasal and eye symptoms, making the use of anti-allergic medications unnecessary, adding: “It can also be assumed that not only birch pollen but also grass pollen and herb pollen are effectively filtered through the Respiray device and can therefore lead to no or significantly fewer symptoms”. However, it also acknowledges that controlling exposure to outdoor allergens is more challenging than for indoor ones, saying that while the device can offer allergy relief for those doing certain types of outdoor work during pollen season, this “will depend on wind conditions. In calm air, the filter effect will be good, stronger crosswinds will reduce the effectiveness”.
In summary, it’s clear from the results of this clinical trial that by filtering out allergens to create a buffer zone of clean air around the user’s head, Wear A+ provides effective protection against airborne allergies such as pet dander, dust mites and pollen. The device’s protection of users’ eyes, noses and airways led to ECARF recommending it for use by people with pet allergies when visiting friends and family who have pets and for people with pollen, pet and dust mite allergies while cleaning, as well as when spending time in nature and in indoor environments such as homes, offices, schools and nursing homes.
If you’d like to read the findings of the clinical trial in more detail, you can find the original article here.
