Researchers offer advice on how to protect yourself from hazardous air indoors

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Day two in the danger zone. The smoke map still categorizing parts of the Milwaukee area as unhealthy and other parts as very unhealthy. And while the outdoor air can't be controlled, we found people trying to do what they can about their indoor air.

It's the same knee-jerk reaction we saw during the early days of Covid. One hardware store today was completely depleted of its air purifiers, and other items related to healthy breathing were selling fast.

"We're out completely and some people are frustrated, and I don’t blame them because we do a lot of local business here," said Tommy Davis, assistant manager of the Ace Hardware in Wauwatosa.

That empty shelf should be filled with air purifiers, but the Wauwatosa Ace Hardware sold out in the last two days -- a couple aisles over.

"We had plenty of N95 masks, respirators, even dust masks. As you can see, I'd say two thirds of our inventory has been depleted," said Davis.

A good do it yourself project might come in handy like this one, similar to what Dr. Ben Weston recommended during the pandemic.

"You want to keep this as sealed as possible so it's drawing all of its air through these filters. If you're getting a standard sized box fan, they're all around 20x20. Usually, I would use a 20x20 filter, but it's pretty simple, just put the four together, put it together with duct tape, seal up the bottom with some cardboard, plug it in and your air gets cleaned," said Andrew Wagner, a home remodeler.

The full interview with Wagner can be found here.

It's possible these smoky particles are getting inside your home because the size is even smaller than a human hair. Anyone with allergies, a heart condition, COPD, or asthma, even those who think they've outgrown asthma should be mindful of the outdoors right now.

"So, there's already some people that are already sensitive to being outside from the pollen and there's also some mold as well that's around and then they now, also on top of it, are having some of this small particles of this smoke and the poor air quality as well, so kind of a double whammy of sorts," said Dr. Eric Schauberger, board certified allergy and immunologist at UW Health.

Dr Schauberger tells mask-wearers that unless it's an N95 or KN95, it's probably not gonna be effective because other masks can't filter out these small particles.

"I'm a little bit concerned about telling people they can just wear those masks because they're likely to get more exposure than they feel like they probably are being exposed, and then they could get into trouble and so putting that on and still doing a whole day of outdoor activity is probably not the best idea," said Dr. Schauberger.

Doctors say bottom line, limit your time outdoors until this thing blows over.