BATON ROUGE — People dealing with high blood pressure may benefit from a household air purifier.

That is according to a new study of more than 150 adults living near highways.

Some of the participants were given high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, purifiers. Others were given fake devices. Blood pressure was taken four times a day. Participants then had their devices switched, giving all time with real and fake air purifiers.

The people who had a working air purifier had a significant decrease in their systolic blood pressure. The improvement even happened in places with relatively low air pollution.

Those with a fake device had a tiny increase in blood pressure.

Researchers say there is overwhelming evidence of the harmful effects of particle pollution, even on something that may seem unrelated, like blood pressure.