11 Facts About HEPA

HEPA filter, known as high-efficiency particulate absorbing filter and high-efficiency particulate arrestance filter, is an efficiency standard of air filters.

HEPA was commercialized in the 1950s, and the original term became a registered trademark and later a generic trademark for highly efficient filters.

HEPA filters are used in applications that require contamination control, such as the manufacturing of hard disk drives, medical devices, semiconductors, nuclear, food and pharmaceutical products, as well as in hospitals, homes, and vehicles.

HEPA filters are composed of a mat of randomly arranged fibers.

Unlike sieves or membrane filters, where particles smaller than openings or pores can pass through, HEPA filters are designed to target a range of particle sizes.

HEPA filters are designed to arrest very fine particles effectively, but they do not filter out gasses and odor molecules.

The second stage high-quality HEPA filter removes the finer particles that escape from the pre-filter.

Some companies use a marketing term known as "True HEPA" to give consumers assurance that their air filters meet the HEPA standard, although this term has no legal or scientific meaning.

HEPA filters are critical in the prevention of the spread of airborne bacterial and viral organisms and, therefore, infection.

So, a true HEPA filter is effectively trapping particles several hundred time smaller than the width of a human hair.

Idea behind the development of the HEPA filter was born from gas masks worn by soldiers fighting in World War II.