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Humidifier for dry air

Posted by cwal @cwal, Nov 29, 2023

In winter with the heat on, the air gets very dry in the house. This dries out my nose and sinus so badly sometimes I get sinus headaches. Is it safe to use a humidifier in a room to help if I use distilled water?

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brittany123 | @brittany123 | Oct 16 11:45am
In reply to @scoop "@cate123456 Dry can wreak havoc on sinuses (and skin!) Humidification really helps. I've used Xclear spray..." + (show)
@scoop

@cate123456 Dry can wreak havoc on sinuses (and skin!) Humidification really helps. I've used Xclear spray also, helpful for sinus headaches, and available on Amazon.

Since the topic of sinus headaches came up -- I had a killer of a sinus headache that seemed to be impacting my ear. When my doctor looked in my ear no infection. I would have sworn otherwise. Long story short, I was experiencing TMJ pain, which I attributed to my sinuses. It seems gripping the nebulizer mouth piece between my teeth is not a good idea!

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I was also gripping the nebulizer with my teeth, using both hands to play games on my phone to kill time. I have always had a crooked front tooth, but I just realized that the tooth was becoming more twisted thanks to the nebulizer. I agree, definitely not a good idea.

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rbl | @rbl | Oct 17 9:43am

I asked my pulmo and she said it’s safer not to use humidifier. She said hang a wet towel in the room if we want some humidity… I think you’d have to super clean out every nook and cranny in the humidifier if used.
I have 2 brand new humidifiers that I’m afraid to use now and haven't tried hanging the wet towel yet. I know there were past threads on this site in the past so you may be able to search for them.

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scoop | @scoop | Oct 17 3:55pm
In reply to @rbl "I asked my pulmo and she said it’s safer not to use humidifier. She said hang..." + (show)
@rbl

I asked my pulmo and she said it’s safer not to use humidifier. She said hang a wet towel in the room if we want some humidity… I think you’d have to super clean out every nook and cranny in the humidifier if used.
I have 2 brand new humidifiers that I’m afraid to use now and haven't tried hanging the wet towel yet. I know there were past threads on this site in the past so you may be able to search for them.

Jump to this post

From the expert on all things NTM/mycobacteria (a snipping from his research paper, Dr. Joseph Falkinham). Bottomline - YES - we can use humidifiers safely. Choose evaporative humidifiers.

"Room-Size Humidifiers. Small, room-size humidifiers can generate aerosols with high numbers of NTM; even from reservoir water containing relatively low numbers of NTM (500 CFU/mL). In particular, the new ultrasonic humidifiers generate a high density aerosol mist that are rich in NTM (Hamilton and Falkinham, 2018). If you need to humidify your air (especially during winter), only use a room evaporative humidifier. Evaporative humidifiers boil water and the mist is blown by a fan or simply rises. Boiling will kill any NTM or bacterial cells and thereby be relatively free of NTM. The ultrasonic humidifiers do not heat the water, but use ultrasonic vibration to produce aerosol droplets. If a room-size humidifier blows water through a wetted filter (called an evaporative humidifier), don’t use it as the water wetting the filter will have NTM that can be aerosolized.

Remember that NTM will grow in biofilms in the humidifier’s water reservoir. Therefore, scrub the surface of the reservoir before refilling to reduce the number of NTM and other waterborne pathogens in the biofilm. I suggest you use a bathroom scrubbing agent. You can even disinfect the reservoir by adding Clorox® (1 cup to 10 cups water) for 30 min. Then be sure to rinse repeatedly until you can’t smell the chlorine before use."

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gbooth54 | @gbooth54 | Oct 19 5:58am

Is it safe to put a pan of water inside a warm air furnace register or duct?

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