how pure is your air?

For the last week and a half I've had two small plug-in air purifiers running full blast in my new apartment in order to get rid of the stale smoke stench the previous tenant left behind (they worked very quickly). I've kept them going fearing it would come back (is that even realistic?), plus I don't like the smell of the public parts of the building which seems to seep through into my foyer (for some reason that isn't getting sucked out and so I leave them running hoping it will eventually happen...probably silly). Anyway, point is that about a week ago my throat started to hurt again--was the strep throat back? I thought I was getting sick, but it never materialized into anything beyond a sore throat, mildly swollen glands, and phelm. I concluded it must be allergies even though I take a daily allergy pill. Then I start freaking out that I'm allergic to my apartment because that will be miserable. It doesn't seem to be mold because my sinuses are fine. But then it occurs to me that maybe the air purifiers are sucking good things out of the air (moisture?). I turned them off before I went to sleep and woke up with an improved throat.

Moral of the tale: there is such a thing as too pure air. And $20 air purifiers work. Who needs Ionic Breeze?