DENVER (KDVR) — With multiple days of smoke and bad air quality, many people may be feeling the effects on their eyes, throat or lungs.

“I’ve got little kids in the house, and they’ve got allergies and asthma,” said John Hicks, the operations manager at Brother’s Plumbing Heating and Electric in Denver.

To help protect them, Hicks replaced his standard air filter in his home with a polarized media filter.

“It looks like a standard filter, but it’s plugged in, it’s got high voltage to it, and it’s able to attract all this stuff to the filter,” he said.

Other people may use air purifiers for their homes, but some only work in small spaces.

Which mask works best for smoky air?

Dr. Anthony Gerber, a pulmonologist at National Jewish Health, said, “Most folks will put it in their bedroom, but again it has to be a HEPA filter and it has to be matched to the size of the space you are filtering.”

Gerber said the people most at risk in these smoky conditions are those with lung disease, older people and the very young. He said if those people are having symptoms outside, they may benefit from using a well-fitted mask.

But keep in mind, surgical and cloth masks do not help in these conditions.

“Really N95s are the only masks which are really proven to be effective,” Gerber said.

Luckily, the air quality is expected to improve in the coming days, and Gerber said most people will be able to push through in the short term.