How To Make a Port Arthur Air Purifier (Easy Peasy)
Citizen Science, COVID, and the Corsi-Rosenthal Box
As we choke on the ash of ancient, Quebec maples I am reminded of a case I worked on in Port Arthur, Texas, where oil refineries proliferated.
In the 1990s I worked as a law clerk for an organization representing death row inmates in Texas (discussed in this space here and here). I got around the Lone Star State and I saw some stuff.
As we choke on the ash of ancient, Quebec maples I am reminded of a case I worked on in Port Arthur, Texas, where oil refineries proliferated. I was dispatched to interview a dying witness. The poor man was clinging to life in a hospital bed in his crowded living room.
I noticed a low humming above me and looked up to see furnace filters taped to a box fan suspended from the ceiling. I looked quizzically at his son, who politely replied to my unasked question. “Air filter,” he said. “Works like a charm.”
For what it’s worth that wasn’t the only “Port Arthur Air Purifier” I saw on that trip (my own name for the device. It never really caught on). Based on the fact that the ambient air in that gentleman’s home didn’t reek of sulfur like everything else in Port Arthur I guessed it was effective.
Citizen Science During COVID
Fast-forward to COVID, and the issue of indoor air quality became one of life and death. Richard Corsi, an engineering professor at UC Davis contacted an old friend, Jim Rosenthal, who owned a Texas air filter company about the most efficient way to clean indoor air. The result was a new iteration of the Port Arthur Air Purifier, the “Corsi-Rosenthal Box.”
Easy Peasy!
For the record, it was reporters for WIRED and the New York Times who called it the “Corsi-Rosenhal Box.” Neither Corsi nor Rosenthal claimed credit for taping furnace filters to box fans, and I doubt they profited. They seem like nice guys who just want to help people breathe clean air.
The Devices are Effective
A study of a home-built air purifier to remove wildfire smoke, using a box fan and filter mounted in a window, showed that particulate matter between 1 and 10 μm in size was reduced by about 75%.
A peer-reviewed study at Brown University confirmed this. “The findings show that an inexpensive, easy-to-construct air filter can protect against illness caused not only by viruses but also by chemical pollutants,” (study author) (Joseph) Braun said. “This type of highly-accessible public health intervention can empower community groups to take steps to improve their air quality and therefore, their health.”
This type of highly-accessible public health intervention can empower community groups to take steps to improve their air quality and therefore, their health.
An Opportunity For Anyone to Help Clean Indoor Air
There is, of course, no reason why a group of civic-minded people can’t raise a few hundred dollars, get together, and tape furnace filters to box fans. A couple of pizzas, maybe some zydeco music (an homage to Port Arthur) in the background.
As we know, systemic racism locates polluting industries in African-American neighborhoods (shout-out to Buffalo wunderkind James Jerome whose event I missed due to poor air quality).
Corsi-Rosenthal boxes will make senior citizen centers, schools — anyplace really - healthier.
Easy peasy.
One day I will tell the rest of the story of my visit to Port Arthur and my discovery of zydeco. It involves a funeral, a few bottles of Lone Star, an opportunity to use my schoolboy French on a rickety stage, and dancing the zydeco until my feet bled.
Play us out Corey!
