Humidifier for dry air

@cwal Here's the advice from the NTM expert researcher, Joseph O. Falkinham, III Ph.D. I cut and paste the pertinent parts from his latest research (2021) . Once you read it you can make an informed decision. Net net: a HOT water steam vaporizer properly maintained is acceptable.

(11) Humidifiers: A Big Problem. Humidifiers, whether small room-size or whole house HVAC systems, transfer water to air. They can also transfer microorganisms, especially NTM, Legionella pneumophila, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Transferring NTM from water to air is the problem. Humidity helps breathing, but it exposes one to NTM-laden aerosols. As humidifiers come in two sizes, room and house-size with different considerations, they will be dealt with separately.

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.

Household-Size Humidifiers (HVAC). In an on-going study of NTM-patients in Philadelphia (the same hospital and area where the elderly, slender women were first identified at risk for NTM pulmonary disease), our colleagues at the Lankenau Medical Research Institute (led by Dr. Leah Lande) discovered that all the NTM-infected women have whole house humidifiers that are simple fabric or plastic woven filters with a channel above with holes for tap water to drip down through the filter. Those systems are like the “swamp coolers” used in the desert southwest to cool homes. The wet filter cools the air during passage. However, NTM adhere to the filter material where they grow and are transferred the household air that is drawn through the filter. Such house-size humidifiers are difficult, if not impossible to disinfect. Theoretically, if the incoming water to the filter was sterilized by 0.2 micrometer filtration or ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, the filter was disinfected regularly like a showerhead, the duct work leading in and out of the humidifier throughout the whole house was free of NTN, and the incoming air was free from outside dust, the humidified air would be relatively free from NTM.

Room- Versus House-Size Humidifiers. I prefer the room-size as they are portable and easier to clean (biofilm-removal) and disinfect (Clorox®). Successful employment of a whole house humidification system requires disinfection of the existing ductwork, a daunting task.

Cwal, I have the same problem you do in winter. I used to get sinus headaches in winter and sometimes even a tiny bit of blood from dry irritated sinuses. Humidifiers didn’t even work — I didn’t know at the time they weren’t safe.

What I found finally helped is to spray Simply Saline nasal mist in my nose before I go to bed, and I keep the spray bottle on my nightstand if I wake up at night I do it again.
You need to really spray a lot and saturate your sinuses, not just a small spray.

I just bought a humidifier and think I bought the wrong kind. I haven’t opened it, so think I’ll return it.

Thank you for the valuable info!

@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!

Now, the question of which evaporative humidifier to get? There are a multitude of different brands out there! Has anyone purchased one in particular and been happy with it?

The thing that seemed to help me with this was a few nasal saline washes. I used distilled water to do so thinking it was safe. Now I read that it isn't! Maybe boiled water would be safe? I thought distilled water was made by boiling and collecting the distillation from that so it's confusing to why it is not safe.

I've heard the same thing and I've been doing a Netti pot forever. I can barely breathe in the morning without it. I also read to boil distilled water for you pot.

I can’t get nasal rinse to work. Something in my body doesn’t drain right with a netti pot. I am using salin mist nose spray several times a day and applying a nasal moisturizer to just inside my nostrils. I think it helps. It’s mainly my eyes I’m trying to moisturize. Fr them, I follow an intensive daily routine due to severe dry eye.

I’m not familiar with evaporative humidifier but have used a vaporizer for years from Vicks or Katz. They are small so you need one for each room, but they are relatively inexpensive. We keep one in the bedroom to use at night. These put steam into the air instead of a cool mist. Dr. F said in another discussion last year that these are safe. I do as another commenter says about cleaning the reservoir frequently. I don’t use chlorine after every use -they are small and you need to refill every day. I do get a cloth or paper towel and wipe around the inside of the reservoir every several uses. I also use Simply Saline but it’s not enough to keep my nose moisturized all night.