Vacuuming helps keep your living space clean, but conversely, it can also be detrimental to indoor air quality by serving as a source of airborne particles. That's because the movement involved in vacuuming -- including your feet and the wheels of the vacuum moving across the floor -- causes dust and other particles that had been on the floor to become detached and resuspended into the air.
"No matter how you look at it, vacuuming is a source [of particles]. … [But] vacuuming obviously has a pretty important hygienic role," said Jeffrey Siegel, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto who studies indoor air quality.
According to Siegel, "[t]he most important thing is to manage the source. It's the open windows, it's the air filter, it's making sure that individuals who are sensitive to air pollution are not present when you're vacuuming. Those are the things that are actually demonstrated to reduce exposure."
CNET spoke with civil and environmental engineering experts to learn how vacuum cleaners impact air quality and what can be done to mitigate the effects.
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Are vacuum cleaners bad for indoor air quality?
Multiple studies, including one published in 2020 in the journal Building and Environment, have found that vacuum cleaners are a source of particles that may contribute to poorer indoor air quality. However, the findings are not alarming enough for indoor air quality experts, including Siegel, to suggest avoiding their use. Vacuums are tools that will keep your living space clean and more hygienic, but the act of vacuuming does resuspend dust, while the motor emits small metallic particles.
"What vacuuming does is reduce the amount of dust or the particles that are on the surfaces," said Andrea Ferro, a professor at Clarkson University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering who studies indoor air quality and has conducted research on vacuums and carpeting. "When you walk on surfaces, those particles get resuspended. By removing them or reducing that load of particles on the surfaces, you're also reducing resuspended dust. The overall picture is you want to keep that dust loading low and one way to do that is vacuuming."
But what exactly is in dust, you may wonder? Some of it is organic material, including dead skin cells, dust mite droppings and dust mite body fragments, according to the American Lung Association. Spending more time indoors may actually create more dust. The other components of dust include soil, trace metals including lead, organophosphate esters (used in things like flame retardants) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
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Are there health risks from vacuum cleaners?
The experts we spoke with differed on whether vacuum cleaners posed any health risks.
Ferro offered a definitive "no" to the question, "because these particles that are on the surfaces that are getting kicked up from the vacuum cleaner would get kicked up anyway from just normal activity," she said. "So there's no additional health risk. It should overall reduce your health risk."
Siegel offered a more cautious answer: he said to look at people who clean for a living. This group may have pronounced health effects from their jobs, which include vacuuming. "For some people, maybe even a relatively small part of the population, it's enough of a concern to pay attention to," he said, referring to people including children with asthma, seniors with respiratory disease or an immunocompromised individual. "For everyone else, we don't know the full scope of the risk, but it's an easy thing to understand. It's a risk to manage."
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Do HEPA filters in vacuums help with air quality?
Siegel and Ferro also disagreed on this question. "The filter that you use matters, but how you use it matters more," Siegel said. "There's lots of vacuum cleaner designs that have a HEPA filter, but the air ends up bypassing the HEPA filter rather than going through it."
So the presence of a HEPA filter doesn't necessarily mean less emissions from the machine. A lot of the particles from the act of vacuuming -- such as those created by your feet -- don't end up in the vacuum anyway. "A good HEPA filter that is well integrated into the design of the vacuum is better," he said, "but it's not the silver bullet."
Ferro shared similar sentiments but was more positive toward vacuums with HEPA filters. "Because it has a tighter seal, you're not getting that kind of leakage that you would get with a non-HEPA-enabled vacuum," she said. "You still have some losses, but it really minimizes the amount of particles that end up in the air."
The Building and Environment study mentioned above similarly found that, "HEPA filters can significantly reduce the [particulate matter] emitted by the vacuum cleaner motor."
Methods to improve indoor air quality when vacuuming
Here are some ways to reduce your exposure to vacuum cleaner related emissions:
Run air purifiers
Both our experts said it's a good idea to run air purifiers while you're vacuuming, although Siegel specifically recommended running the device before you start cleaning and keeping it on for a good amount of time after you're done -- about an hour -- since particles tend to stay suspended into the air.
If you're looking to purchase an air purifier, this list contains the best ones, according to CNET's reviewers. If an air purifier purchase is not in your budget at the moment, Ferro recommends turning on your kitchen exhaust fan if it pushes air outside.
Open windows and run fans
Opening windows is another great way to mitigate the risks of vacuuming. Of course, the weather may dictate whether it makes sense to open windows, so it may be best to wait for a milder day to vacuum. Opening windows doesn't guarantee ventilation, so consider opening windows on opposite sides of a room or having a fan blow outward while vacuuming.
Clean out and replace filters on vacuums and air purifiers
Cleaning and/or replacing the filters on vacuums and air purifiers won't have any impact on air quality, but it will help your machines perform more efficiently, so it's a good idea to consistently do so. There are also some common mistakes you'll want to avoid while vacuuming to get the best cleaning outcome.
Get a monitoring tool
Some consumer-level air monitoring tools, like those from IKEA or Switchbot, may be able to detect particles such as dust, but most won't show smaller particles like those that are emitted by the vacuum's monitor.
"If I wanted to show someone that vacuuming was a big deal, a monitor shows that really nicely. It also shows you, hey, the air purifier is working or those open windows are working," Siegel said. But, he pointed out, "To really understand a monitor, you have to spend a long time with it and see how it changes over time and understand what it does and doesn't measure well."
Get a bagged vacuum if you can
Neither of our experts knew of any studies that looked at the impact a bagged vacuum has on indoor air quality, but Ferro said that bags might be a "bit better." In any case, a bagged vacuum -- if you can still find one -- reduces the risk of dust escaping when emptying since the contents are mostly trapped in the bag.
Avoid carpeting
"Studies consistently have shown that carpeted surfaces have much more dust than hard floorings," Ferro said. "The carpet sort of acts as a reservoir, and it's harder to clean them than it is to clean the hard flooring, so the dust builds up. You can also have the growth of microbes when you have the dust build up because you've got a food source for them and it could be warm and humid in the carpet." Dust from carpets is more easily resuspended in the air compared to those on hardwood floors, so a vacuum well-suited to tackle thick carpeting may help here.
Tackle mold and moisture
Avoiding mold and moisture in your home is "huge" for improving indoor air quality, Siegel said. "We don't actually 100% understand medically why, but the amount of evidence, especially for kids and respiratory problems, is overwhelming that mold and moisture is a problem."
To reduce this issue, consider investing in a dehumidifier and keeping things that facilitate mold growth, such as cardboard boxes, out of areas like basements that tend to be warm and moist.
Install a central vacuum system
A central vacuum cleaner is centrally located in a home, typically in the basement or garage, connected to multiple ports for hoses. When a hose is connected to a port, it activates the suction of a central vac, which then captures dirt and dust in the unit. This isn't a simple solution, as you'll need professionals to install a central vacuum and the piping. They're also not as convenient as plug-in vacs -- typically, you'll need to carry a bulky hose and powerhead around to each port of your home to clean.
The experts we spoke with were unaware of any studies on central vacuums' impact on indoor air quality, but both noted that they likely improve it over traditional vacuums since you won't have the motor's emissions or particles potentially leaking from the dustbin.
Conclusion
Vacuuming is necessary to keep your home clean and hygienic, but using vacuums may have the unfortunate side effect of worsening indoor air quality. That said, the particles emitted by vacuums may only negatively affect the most vulnerable, such as asthmatic children, the immunocompromised or seniors with respiratory illness.
If more sensitive individuals live with you, avoid vacuuming while they are present. To mitigate any potential harm caused by vacuuming, it's a great idea to open windows and run an air purifier before you start vacuuming and for up to an hour after you're finished. Avoiding carpeting and tackling mold and moisture will also go a long way toward improving your indoor air quality.
Is sweeping a better alternative than vacuuming?
According to Ferro, sweeping is "definitely not" a better alternative than vacuuming. "You're going to resuspend more particles into the air with sweeping than you are with vacuuming," she said.
Is there a better method to clean hardwood floors than vacuuming?
Wet mopping is the best, according to Ferro, pointing to countries like Japan and Taiwan, where the practice is standard. That's because instead of resuspending particles, a mop collects them (although you're still resuspending dust with your feet). "You're not going to get a full clean, but for the most part, that's going to be your best bet," she said. "But it's also the most work."
Are bagged vacuum cleaners better than bagless for air quality?
There is little research to show that using a bagged vacuum is better for air quality, but it may still be a good idea for those sensitive to dust since it makes emptying a vacuum much simpler.
What about using a robovac?
The impact of a robot vacuum on indoor air quality hasn't been studied, but it's likely a good idea if the machine is efficient. If you're worried about air quality, be sure to have your robovac running earlier than you return home to reduce your exposure to any particles the machine may resuspend.