Thank you for writing this - I'm working on a post going over how much cheaper someone could make air purifiers for and it surprises me that it's not a more common topic of discussion. Some food for thought while I finish it up:
Indoor air quality affects so many people to at least some extent - consider air pollution, viruses, allergies etc.
Making air purifiers even slightly cheaper vastly increases the number of people globally who can afford one, and directly increases the cost effectiveness of any intervention which involves paying for them.
Noise is a common reason for people under-utilising air purifiers and the affordable end of consumer hardware hasn't solved for this yet. We know this because best-in-class clean air delivery rate (CADR) at a given noise level can be achieved with what is essentially a box with 2-4 air filters and some computer fans on the side (computer fans have become remarkably capable at low noise levels in recent times). These kits can be bought but minimal competition in the space means no one is anywhere close to the reasonable price floor.
Competition in the air purifier market has partially been on features which are not necessary when the goal is optimizing CADR/$. Ionization, timers, remote control, app connectivity, odour removal etc. can be done away with for the purpose of achieving "one billion air filters in this decade" or anything of similar scale.
It almost seems too simple: the many things floating around in the air cause a huge amount of death, illness and general discomfort. If you push enough air through a fine enough filter you remove the stuff in the air. If you make the filters cheap and quiet enough, people will be able to buy them and we can send people more of them for the same price.
Of course the air quality problem with respect to pollution is obviously something much more difficult to solve than simply chucking air filters everywhere since people also have to be outside for much of their day. 80,000 hours podcast 170 "Santosh Harish on how air pollution is responsible for ~12% of global deaths - and how to get that number down" is a great introduction. But regardless, people ought to be able to have some refuge somewhere, and indoor filtration and wearing a mask are the only ways is the only way someone can individually guarantee that for themselves.
And I agree with the other point as well- it's a one-two punch in the sense of the lack of safety net pushing away certain groups of people and thereby also biasing the type of work done away from what would be otherwise optimal.
Thank you for writing this - I'm working on a post going over how much cheaper someone could make air purifiers for and it surprises me that it's not a more common topic of discussion. Some food for thought while I finish it up:
It almost seems too simple: the many things floating around in the air cause a huge amount of death, illness and general discomfort. If you push enough air through a fine enough filter you remove the stuff in the air. If you make the filters cheap and quiet enough, people will be able to buy them and we can send people more of them for the same price.
Of course the air quality problem with respect to pollution is obviously something much more difficult to solve than simply chucking air filters everywhere since people also have to be outside for much of their day. 80,000 hours podcast 170 "Santosh Harish on how air pollution is responsible for ~12% of global deaths - and how to get that number down" is a great introduction. But regardless, people ought to be able to have some refuge somewhere, and indoor filtration and wearing a mask are the only ways
is the only waysomeone can individually guarantee that for themselves.