Air Purifiers

Which would be valid medical expenses, and what documentation would be needed?:
-Advanced air filtration system (particulates, chemicals, hepa and activated carbon filtration) for allergies & chemical sensitivities
-Vacuum with hepa filter (a far shot, but worth asking)
-Home water filtration systems, shower dechlorinator and tap purifier.

I live in an extraordinarily polluted environment, and right now, the cost of breaking my lease and problems associated w/ relocating now would exceed the cost of this very expensive air purifier.
http://www.airpurifiers.com/products/iqair/gc-chemisorber.htm
If it works, it’s worth the money (esp. since I have chem sensitivities & allergies, so I’d probably find use for it anywhere), but if it doesn’t, it’s a huge waste for a glorified hepa filter (which is what it’d amount to if the chemical filtration didn’t work).
So my question is, how exactly does it filter out
Sulfur dioxide
Formaldehyde
Carbon dioxide
etc.
I’d be particularly interested to know how it can seriously filter Carbon dioxide, since that’s so prevalent in the air, I’d think that any filter for it’d be worn out within a day. That one in particular makes me question the validity of the product.
The sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde, and particulates from deisel are all very important to me, since these are some of the worst problems in this place, wedged between a factory w/ high sulfur dioxide emissions and an expressway, in a building full of gas stoves and heat, aside from fireplace smoke wafting in from the neighbors on some days.
Can someone with some knowledge of how these advanced air purifiers work please explain this to me? Would I be throwing my money away? (Please note that this is not a small purchase for me, especially looking at the cost and frequency of replacing the filters)

My chest really hurts. My landlord had cleaned the mold problem in my room. But I find it hard to breathe in there. But I also went a little crazy cleaning with chemicals such as tilex, a great value disinfectant, and I sprayed perfume because I still smelt mold. I haven’t cleaned the carpet yet or my stuffed animals, could the chemicals and my stuff be the reason why I can’t breathe well? Or is the mold in the walls?
I also have an air purifier with a hepa filter, should I change the filter?
It really hurts to breathe and Ive been in my moms room for now, but I really want to go back to my room.
I have the door open and a fan
still no hope
=/

No central air or heat, so in winter windows are cracked and in summer windows are screened but opened. I bought the air purifier to help with allergies and after 2 nights it does seem to help, but think I need to go back and get the larger one. This one is for room 10 x 12 and my room is 16 x 13 and is connected to kitchen with no dividing door. Am I fighting a losing battle, or will this unit help pretty bad allergies (I think mostly to dust)? Would love to hear your experiences.
P.S. I bought the Holmes brand with Hepa type filter.
Thank you.

Other than move.

I live above smokers. Their place is a small 1 bedroom apartment and there are 4 adults living there, all smokers. The smell comes up here, and its quite bad. My mother was a smoker, and when I lived with her that apartment didnt even smell as bad as my apartment does.

Im not trying to put smokers down, whatever you do with your life is your business, all Im asking is for help. I have tried so many things:

Candles: Glade, village, Fabreze odor remover
Sprays: Glade, Fabreze, Airwic, so on
Vinegar in bowls.
Charcoal on my floor
Baking soda in my carpet
Hung up wet towels to "absorb" the smell.
There have just been so many things I have tried.. Im out of ideas.

My window is wide open, and its about 30 degrees out. My room gets cold, but the smell doesnt go away. I live very close to a building, so I never get a breeze in my room or anything unfortunately. The window has been open for over a week, including night. Doesnt make much difference with the smell.

I’ve tried putting a box fan in the window backwards to pull the smoke out and it doesn’t. It just makes my room colder for some reason.

I’ve looked around for places it could come in… we have baseboard oil heat.. I don’t think its coming from there? There are no vents, or wholes in the floors that I can see..

I tried talking to them… politely. They were apologetic, and said they didnt know it was coming up… we had relief for about 24 hours and that was that.

We bought an air purifier, one of the honeywell hepa kinds. All it did was blow the smell around. My aunt let me borrow her big one, big enough for a 17×17 room.. I tried it in my bedroom (9×9) and it did the same, it blew the smell around.

Are there other things I can try? I really like my apartment, and my landlord… I dont want to move when my lease is up. Is there anything I can try? And, this place is not a non smoking apartment, so asking the landlord for help wont do me any good.

i have asthma and was told that a HEPA air filter would help a lot, especially since i keep two parakeets in my room and they can cause dander. so, i wanted to know how much they cost and is an air purifier the same thing? I saw air purifiers at walmart and some said that they produce hot air and other said that they produce cool air? which should i get? hot or cold? thanks!

Tanning used to heal the rash,but now I’m sun sensitive. I’ve had biopsies since 17,told everything from mites,animal scabies,to live elsewhere. I’ve always had dry skin & living in WI my problems get worse in fall,winter,spring.I’ve been diagnosed with:Eczematous dermatitis,Eczema,Atopic dermatitis,& Asteatatic dermatitis,plus a nerve rash.I’ve seen numerous allergists,dermatologist nothing works that they gave me.Olux foam helps on my scalp,getting a perm used to help for awhile.I have a space guard media pleated filter system on my furnace,4 Hunter air purifiers with hepa filters.I lived in a house without forced air heating,that didn’t help at all.I would appreciate ANY help from a DR. or someone experiencing this. No one else in my family has anything like this.Please help?
I have had allergy testing done 3 times,have seen 5 dermatologists over the years had 5 biopsies done.It is NOT an allergy,nor is it psoriasis.I listed the skin conditions I’ve finally been diagnosed with in the last year.

Is there a vacuum out there it is a certified air purifier? I recently learned that vacuums blow out dust, even ones with expensive hepa filters leak some form of bacteria into the air.

I’m looking for facts only, not opinions. Sources preferred.
If you take a high power flashlight and shine it at the exhaust, you can see dust coming out. Even on the new dysons, orecks and kirbys.

Forcing you to shut all windows on that side of the house unless you wanted to inhale the smoke in your home and peeling paint from your house from the tanic acid of the smoke that made you have to touchup paint every year?

This stove is not exhausted to a chimney. Rather it is exhausted into a 6" pipe out the back side of their cement cellar, fumes pushed towards my house.

I run an air purifier and if I have it on and it sucks in that smoke from outside to push out clean air in my house, it cakes up and eventually puts out the smoky air….looks like ash on top. I just threw out the home made filter and I have to clean the fan in side too and the vent. The ash is so fine it makes it through a hepa filter and makes even finer particles move into the air that made it by that micron filter and makes us sick in this house if I don’t clean it thoroughly and change the filter. I try not to leave windows on that side of the house open when they are running that stove.

This morning the sun was shining in just right and I saw a lot of particles floating in the air and now I’m really disturbed about this. I am wondering what is the best way to get cleaner indoor air quality at home? We already have the normal filter that every house has for the air conditioner and heater, but I’m thinking I should have something more and wondering if I should buy an air purifier filter? I see some air filters are HEPA and some are not. Is there a difference? Is one better than the other? I read somewhere that someone bought a home air filter and the room started having a weird smell, is that normal?