Time now for our "Life & Info" segment... where we focus on information useful for your everyday life whether you are in Korea or somewher else around the world.
Most of South Korea has been blanketed by high levels of ultra-fine dust, a class-one carcinogen, in recent weeks.... and even today it's BAD.
This public health issue is also changing consumer trends in Korea.
Our business correspondent Kim Hyesung is in the studio with us for more.
Hyesung, what are some of the changes we are seeing in consumer trends as a result of the air pollution?
Mark, yes, when we think of ultra fine dust, the first thing that comes into mind is to wear face masks to help filter out the fine dust and pollutant particles.
Ultra fine dust are smaller than 2-point-5 micrometers in diameter...or about one-thirtieth the width of a human hair...when you breathe the particles, it can result in serious health problems, ranging from respiratory diseases to heart disease.
But it's not just when outdoors.
We also need to protect ourselves from inhaling fine dust indoors, like in our homes or offices, because it's the same air.
This has led to soaring consumption of home appliances like air purifiers.
According to data from retail giant emart, sales of air purifiers, air conditioners that have pollutant filtering functions, air dressers have all gone up double digits between January and March compared to the same period last year.
First, take a listen to customers I ran into.
"I have one air purifier in my living room and another in my son's room as he has respiratory problems. When fine dust levels are high, the air purifier goes on automatically with warning alerts and cleans the air. Everytime I change the filter, I can see all the fine dust. Having air purifiers at least gives me some sort of peace of mind. It's better to use them than doing nothing."
"I don't want my one-year-old to inhale ultra fine dust. I bought an air purifier last spring, and I came out today to look for a vacumm cleaner that can suck up the ultra fine dust. I heard ultra fine dust needs special filters to remove."
The air purifer market is growing rapidly on soaring demand. It's expected to triple from 2016 and top three billion U.S. dollars by 2020.
I see. I have two young sons and I want to buy some new air purifiers too in addition to the one I already have. Can you tell us what we should look out for?
So, there are all kinds of air purifiers, from Korean brands like Samsung and LG Electronics and Coway to foreign brands like Xiaomi and Venta.
Prices range from 100 dollars to 5-thousand dollars and even higher.
When you shop for air purifiers. Look for two things.
First, how much space it covers.
It's also called the Clean Air Delivery Rate. Consider the size of the room you want to purify.
The bigger the area like 30 square meters, 50 square meters, or 90...the more expensive the products.
But company representatives and research data show products work best at 10 to 15 square meters