There happened today a fiasco: Amid great anticipation, the pre-filter refill for my IQAir GC MultiGas Room Air Purifier was delivered to the wrong address. Specifically, to the address I lived at just over a year ago when I first purchased the unit. So I had to drive out to Pasadena, Texas twice in an effort to rescue the merchandise that Fedex so kindly abandoned at the residence of a former neighbor. Mission accomplished. Whew.

On Pasadena: I didn’t appreciate having to drive there twice in one day, much less live there for any length of time. I can assure you that living there was reason enough to drop some cash on an IQAir. It is a city with a stench, the dirty industrial underbelly of East Houston. On both trips out there today, I could have sworn someone had just farted in my car. But just as I remembered that I was alone, I registered the fact that I was also descending the nether side of the bridge over the Houston Ship Channel where the exit sign reads “Pasadena,” and that that is exactly what the nether world smells like. How could I move my family and one-and-a-half year old daughter to live at the foothills of the carcinogenic chemical–producing mountain that is Lyondell Refinery and still be able to sleep at night?

Enter IQAir: The IQAir company has several different room air purifier models available, but the one I chose is designed for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS). So far I can’t count MCS as one of my health challenges, but I’d like to keep it that way. As I understand, it can be brought on by one-too-many chemical exposures—Pasadena seemed like prime territory, so I erred on the side of prevention.

The GC MultiGas model is more than your average HEPA air filter. It actually contains 12 full pounds of “granular activated carbon and impregnated alumina.” Just what is that, you ask? Well, not to get technical, but anything measured in pounds of granular activated carbon is a heck of a lot more powerful at absorbing odors and gaseous chemicals than the feather-light carbon- sprayed mesh filter you’ll find alongside many a HEPA filter. The cartridge-based carbon in the IQAir eliminates volatile organic compounds (VOCs) while the alumina actually destroys chemicals such as formaldehyde.

Even though I don’t live in Pasadena anymore, I still sleep with the IQAir on in my bedroom. As P.W. McRandle of The Green Guide reminds us, “Levels of air pollutants—including allergenic dust mites, lung-clogging particles of soot and grime and toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which evaporate from many materials—can be two to a hundred times higher indoors than outdoors, according to the EPA.”

Since I can’t afford a unit for every room, I just focus on using the unit during sleep because I figure that’s a big chunk of the time I’m actually at home. If I spend a Sunday afternoon around the house, I might move it into the living room for a time. But if you’re serious about whole-house filtration, IQAir does sell a unit that installs into the central air system of your home.

I’m hooked on the IQAir because when I open my bedroom door to leave the room, the rest of the house suddenly has a noticeable odor of something oddly chemical-like. Which sounds like a yucky reason to like something, but it’s scary to think that my house just smells like that all the time and my nose gets so accustomed that I don’t notice. It’s hugely comforting to know that when the IQAir is on, I can distinguish the smell of clean air from its evil, invisible twin and that if I use it, I know I’m breathing the good stuff.

Choose your bliss: Now even though I’m IQAir-crazy, I’m not saying you have to be too. Many good brands and models of room air purifiers exist. Two other brands I would bring to your attention are E.L. Foust and AllerAir, and I’m sure there are others I haven’t heard of. AllerAir offers an option for a sanitizing UV light to be built into your unit. So do your research and by all means, buy the air purifier you fancy best. But buy one, please! Your lungs and your liver will thank you. And don’t forget your nose— pleasures it’s never known before are just waiting to be discovered. The smell of nothing is a rare treat!