Minister flags false claims by air purifier manufacturers; BIS to intensify market surveillance

NOIDA/ NEW DELHI: As more people buy air purifiers to beat pollution at home and office ahead of the annual spike in bad air quality, particularly in NCR, consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi on Monday flagged that some manufacturers might be making false claims. He said these machines might have just a fan inside.

With a clear indication from the minister that there is a need to find out whether the claims made by sellers are genuine, Bureau of Indian Standards ( BIS ) officials said they will increase market surveillance of air purifiers to check their quality.

The govt is also likely to bring the product under mandatory standards or Quality Control Order (QCO), sources said.

“Discussions on air pollution have begun. Looking at the air quality index (AQI) on mobile-phone, people, out of fear, buy air purifiers. Air purifiers make such false claims. We see air purifiers and so much is written, but nothing is there in it. There is just a fan in it, yet claims are still made,” Joshi said while speaking at an event marking World Standards Day.

The minister said there is a need to increase consumer awareness ahead of winter, during which air pollution worsens in Delhi due to crop residue burningin neighbouring states.

BIS director general Pramod Kumar Tiwari told TOI: “We have increased market surveillance by almost 10 times, from 15,000 to over 1.5 lakh annually, in the past five years. Air purifiers are also checked and now it will be intensified.”

Speaking at the event, Union consumer affairs secretary Nidhi Khare said market surveillance helps the govt to take necessary action to protect the interest of consumers. She said after getting inputs, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) can initiate class-action against erring firms.

At present, BIS has a standard for portable electric air purifiers (IS17531 of 2021), but it is not mandatory. Once a product is brought under QCO, manufacturing, storage, and selling of non-BIS products is prohibited.

Joshi also spoke about govt plans to make BIS standards mandatory for public procurement on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal. “BIS standards are partially implemented on GeM. We’ll try to make it mandatory,” he said.