Covid-19 and Wildfires Spell Big Business for the Air Purifier Industry
After a 57% spike in 2020 thanks to the pandemic, U.S. sales continue to climb—now driven by smoke from a burning West Coast.
The Statue of Liberty sits behind a cloud of haze on July 20, as wildfire smoke from the West blanketed the largest U.S. city.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesBetween Covid-19’s airborne transmission and more recently choking smoke sent aloft by western wildfires—some of which drifted thousands of miles to settle over East Coast cities—the very air Americans breathe has gone from afterthought to worrisome threat.
One sector that’s managed to benefit from these dual crises is the air purifier industry. Sales have been climbing since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, a trend that’s been turbocharged this year by unprecedented, climate change-induced infernos raging across the West.