A few years on a plague in Africa made scientists mindful of the requirement for cover against chemicals, scents, building materials, insecticides, dust mites, pollen and food allergens. This started a lot of air purification devices being developed.

Regardless of all this, it wasn't till the 1980s the clean air craze truly took off. The idea of a dust free environment was hot, practical or not.

According to studies, HEPA filters, which were the largest rage of the time, filtered out 99.7% of all of the allergens in the air and all micron offenders of size 0.3 and bigger.

But advancements failed to stop there. Newer devices, for example Nebulizers, managed to filter offenders of size 0.1 and bigger and still keep the 99.7% filter level. Over time, the amount of devices used for filtering the air has grown astronomically. Just do a web search on the different types and makes of air purifiers. There are actually masses of them. All this from an easy mask designed for fire wrestlers. Who would have ever guessed?