When I look out of my Noida apartment window these days, the sky looks so clean. No grey smog or dust in the air. The winter is slowing being burnt up by the emerging Indian summer and despite the increasing heat we are happy that at least the air is now cleaner. However, it is when my air purifier whirs to life because of its automated schedule that I realise how the air is still not what it should be ideally… or what it is in some other parts of our country. And as we return to the daily commute cycle, where we spend over two hours a day commuting to and from work in the Metro cities, we often tend to forget the amount of pollution these drives expose us to. And it was just to check this that I thought I should try out the Airific Car Cabin Filter from Nirvana Being. Over the years, I have tested car air purifiers, but this was going to be a first. The Airific Car Cabin Filter can be self installed, if you are one of those confident enough to pop open the glove cabinet or wherever your AC filter is stowed away. I wasn’t. So I got some help getting this done. It was quite easy and I could have managed it myself though. A few minutes later, the new filter was safely installed, and I was staring at the black board that was supposed to be my four-year-old old AC filter. Not a pretty site in any sense. I had a portable air quality monitor in the car to see how this was working. On the first drive, with the windows down, the monitor was clocking over 160 on PM2.5. I really wasn’t expecting the reading to be this bad in the middle of March. We NCR residents keep these numbers for Diwali and not Holi. Anyway, I rolled up the windows and switched on the AC, drove to a nearby market for some quick shopping. After the seven-minute drive, the reading was showing 50 and green from the earlier read. A PM2.5 level of under 50 is supposed to be good for humans. From here, I drove back home, a drive of more that 25 minutes. By the time I reached, the reading was 25 and I could sort of feel it in the air. Over the past week, as the temperatures have been rising in North India, I have been switching on the AC regularly. Anyway after seeing those 160+ readings I’m not so keen to keep the windows down anyway. A few minutes into each drive, the AQI monitor starts showing levels under 50. The longer the drive, the better the air quality. For those who are worried about AQI, or travel a lot with children, the Airific Car Cabin Filter is an affordable way to buy some peace of mind and clean air. The purifiers cost around Rs 1,500 based on the car model and lasts up to six months. That for some will be a small price to pay for breathing pure.
