Hello everyone!
My name is Ethan Brooke, and I am the person behind this website. I want to tell you a short story about how this website came to exist, and why I write about something that for many may seem quite boring.
How does one begin writing about air pollution, masks, respirators, and filtration? Quite coincidentally, it turns out!
I am from New Zealand, the country containing the city with the cleanest air in the world. Air pollution is rarely considered, and most people don’t even know what a respirator is or when to don one.
In 2016 I moved to South Korea to study. During the next few years, I wanted to share experiences with others, and I began a travel blog documenting my thoughts and adventures.
However, while writing about my time in South Korea, I realised something. Many ex-pats moving to the country were worried about air pollution, but there were almost no useful resources on the topic! At least not in English.
That inspired me to write two articles. One about air pollution in Seoul and one about the best fine dust masks to use in Korea. That article quickly took off and became my most successful.
Although I don’t believe the article was great (certainly not by my current standards), it did very well because there was so little coverage of the topic – a topic with serious consequences.
While writing those articles, I found that I had a passion for writing researched articles. Writing travel articles is fun, but I have always loved research and writing on deeper topics really appealed to me. Based on the success of my previous article, I also knew there was a demand for more information.
At the start of 2020, something else increased everyone’s interest in respirators. You can probably guess what I am talking about.
I found myself writing an article about the best respirators for virus protection, and soon I had written five articles on respirators alone. I realised it was almost impossible to find good resources that answer questions such as ‘What’s the difference between an N95 respirator and a KF94 respirator?’.
With the number of articles I wrote about respirators and air pollution, I realised these topics were taking over my so-called ‘travel’ blog.
From there, this BreatheSafeAir was born. I don’t know why I find this topic interesting to write about, but for some reason, I enjoy it to this day. So, there you have it. That’s my story and the story behind how this blog came to be. I hope you enjoyed reading it!
I do want to mention I am not an expert in the field of respirators and air pollution. I have not studied either of these fields in university; rather, I study them in my spare time out of my interest.
I always do my best to provide sources for my information, and I rely on official sources. Regarding my mask and respirator reviews, I provide information from third-party test results that I have been provided. In this way, I always ensure all information is accurate and verified.
I discuss my website ethics and beliefs in more detail on my disclaimer page. If you want to learn more, I recommend reading that page.
I am always open to questions and comments, so please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or on the contact me page.