Personal air purifiers that 'neutralise pollution' come to London

Personal purifiers that neutralise pollution are competing to create clean air bubbles around Londoners.

While British firm Dyson has created the Pure Cool Link purifier — in tower and desktop versions — two foreign start-ups are crowdfunding for the personal mobile space, including public transport, the office and baby buggies.

Both claim to clean the air of about one metre around the user. One has a filter, the other does not.

Air Halo was created in Hong Kong, where air pollution is twice as bad as in London.

The “Plascide reactor” zaps pollution particles with electricity as they pass through.

Inventor Herman Tsui created the “portable air sanitiser” — about the size of a large drinks can — after the Sars respiratory disease outbreak in 2003.

The rechargeable device, costing £136 for a pair, targets bacteria, allergen compounds, fungal spores and tiny PM2.5 particles which are common in exhaust fumes.

California-based Wynd also cleans the air around users, and updates them through an app.