Have you ever noticed these two different spellings of mucus? I, of course, have because I write about it all the time! As much as I love to learn and write about allergies and allergen avoidance, I love to learn about words. Today, I'm passing along a "fun" fact about mucus versus mucous.

Simply put, mucus is a noun and mucous is an adjective. So, the actual fluid that comes out of your nose when you are congested is mucus and the linings in your body that secrete mucus are mucous membranes.

Dictionary.com's definition of mucus is: "the slimy protective secretion of the mucous membranes, consisting mainly of mucin*." The word actually derives straight from the Latin word mucus, meaning "snot, slime, mold."

Mucous, on the other hand, according to Dictionary.com, is "pertaining to, consisting of, or resembling mucus" or "containing or secreting mucus."

Coming across it in the above definition of mucus, I had to look up the word mucin. Mucin is "any of a class of glycoproteins found in saliva, gastric juice, etc., that form viscous solutions and act as lubricants or protectants on external and internal surfaces of the body" (Dictionary.com).

There you have it, folks, probably more than you ever wanted to know about mucus-related words. For more about mucus itself, stay tuned for February's allergist interview, in which Dr. Scott Carroll of the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic discusses what those different colors of mucus mean for your health.

The unit pictured above may not look like much, but in reality, this is the precursor to Honeywell 50000 series air purifiers. We recently found this unit and would not have given it a second glance had it not been for the “Enviracaire” labeling on the front of the unit. Currently, all of the room air purifiers we offer from Honeywell also carry the Enviracaire® brand name. What was unique about this unit is that nowhere does it mention Honeywell. Instead, I discovered that it was manufactured by a company called Environmental Air Control Inc. (EACI). This perked my interest.

There was little information I could gather online about EACI. The company has no web presence, and Honeywell makes no mention of acquiring the company or the brand in the history section of their website. What I did discover was that EACI was a company based in Hagerstown, MD. Their business focus was twofold. First, their Enviracaire division produced and sold air cleaners, much like the one shown above. Secondly, their Envirco division provided “ultra-clean air systems and components” as well as air quality testing and monitoring services.

What I could glean from the sparse information online was that in 1992 Honeywell purchased the Enviracaire division. The Envirco division was purchased by Donaldson Company, which develops and produces air filtration and exhaust systems. To this day Honeywell still manufactures and markets the Envircaire® brand with models like the 50250 and 50150.

The dinosaur we salvaged carried the product name of EV-25. Despite its rough appearance, when plugged in, the unit still worked! It smelled terrible, and the control dial was broke, so it blew out dirty air at full capacity. Filters were clogged with dirt and dust, but the unit still functioned, despite what I estimate to be approximately 18 years of service. The label below gives some idea of the age of this unit.


This model had the same basic cylindrical design that you still see with many of the modern Enviracaire® units, and while I wouldn’t necessarily recommend going out and trying to purchase one of these (if you can find one; aside from this dust bucket, I could not) you can still purchase aftermarket replacement filters for this product. While the importance of researching this soon to be extinct air purifier is debatable, it does shed some light onto how Honeywell entered the air purifier market.