Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jul 22/98) - Heavy smoke and blowing ashes made breathing -- both indoors and out -- somewhat uncomfortable over the weekend. It was so irritating that many residents went on a mad hunt for air purifiers.

On Monday, Canadian Tire reported selling 30 air purifiers in two days, as many as they would normally sell in a month.

"I just talked to a couple of customers here a few minutes ago and they find that the smoke isn't bothering them. It's the smell and the smell is getting into their homes, said Jan Lavertu, general manager of Canadian Tire, on Monday.

Air purifiers come in different sizes and range in price from $39 to $299.

Lavertu said the main difference between them is the filters. The more money spent, the better filtering system is.

"It's a special filter so when it sucks in the air, it's actually doing a better job of cleaning and sending it out instead of putting it through a carbon filter."

To prevent smoky air and ash from seeping into businesses and apartment complexes, Dan Prima, a foreman with Honeywell Ltd., recommends closing down the amount of outside air going into the buildings.

"That's all you can do, and even then, it'll eventually permeate in through, anyway. Usually it's just keeping the filters clean. The filters seem to pick up a bit of it," said Prima.

Honeywell hasn't done any extra filter changes because of the smoke and ash. He said they change filters regularly because of all the dust that usually blows around in the city.

At home, Prima said he relies on an air purifier to keep the air clean.

"It's great. It can be really smoky outside and it's clean as hell inside," he said.

Cleaning experts said it's important to have fresh-air returns cleaned out regularly, especially now with the smoke and ash floating around.

"Like with my place, where I live -- yesterday morning I got up and there was ash all over the place. What it's going to do is get into your fresh-air returns and you're going to be blowing this stuff all year long," said Karen Siebold, owner of Arctic Dustbusters.

"It definitely would make a difference if people start cleaning."