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What's
The Problem With Ozone?
Ozone
Is
Toxic!
Quote
from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"When inhaled, ozone can damage the
lungs. Relatively low amounts
can cause chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath, and, throat
irritation.
Ozone may also worsen chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and
compromise
the ability of the body to fight respiratory infections. People vary
widely
in their susceptibility to ozone. Healthy people, as well as those with
respiratory difficulty, can experience breathing problems when exposed
to
ozone. Exercise during exposure to ozone causes a greater amount of
ozone
to be inhaled, and increases the risk of harmful respiratory effects.
Recovery
from the harmful effects can occur following short-term exposure to low
levels
of ozone, but health effects may become more damaging and recovery less
certain
at higher levels or from longer exposures (US EPA, 1996a, 1996b).
Manufacturers
and vendors of ozone devices often use misleading terms to describe
ozone.
Terms such as "energized oxygen" or "pure air" suggest that ozone is a
healthy kind of oxygen. Ozone is a toxic gas with vastly different
chemical
and toxicological properties from oxygen. Several federal agencies have
established
health standards or recommendations to limit human exposure to ozone."
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They even teach it in schools!
Extract from a school chemistry
revision book:
OZONE:
It is
a blue gas - a very powerful
oxidizing agent and extremely poisonous. It occupies a
very small part of the atmosphere, mainly located about 30 km above the
surface - the ozone layer. Here it prevents most of the ultraviolet
radiation from reaching the earth where it could do great damage.
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Firstly,
What is
ozone?
Quite simply, ozone is a very active
form of oxygen, consisting of three atoms instead of the normal two.
Although gases are made up of
individual atoms they are at their most stable when the atoms cling
together in pairs (called molecules). So, for example, we
would describe hydrogen as H2 and oxygen as O2.
Under certain conditions these pairs
of atoms can become separated. It takes quite a lot of energy to do
this and usually happens when oxygen is subjected to high voltage
electricity or high energy ultra violet light (UVC).
In nature, this would be by the energy
of lightning or sunlight
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....this is how the ozone
layer is formed.
Intense ultra violet light from the sun hits the upper atmosphere. When
the UV rays collide with oxygen they split the molecule into its two
separate atoms. These atoms would dearly like to re-combine but have
been driven apart by the impact. The next best thing they can do
is to tag on to a nearby "normal" oxygen molecule which now becomes
O3 instead of the usual O2. This new triple-atom combination
is called ozone.
The triple bond of ozone is quite weak
and one atom needs to
be shed to make it stable again. So when it passes near another single
oxygen
atom or another (triple atomed) ozone molecule, the surplus (loose)
atoms
will break away and re-combine into oxygen pairs.
All
the time the sun shines on the upper atmosphere, a churning mass of
billions
of these reactions is happening. We call this the Ozone layer
and the energy absorbed by it all, reduces the intensity of the UV
light to a level that life on the Earth below can tolerate.
In the upper atmosphere, there are very few other substances to react
with, so the oxygen molecules just keep breaking down and re-combining
with themselves (the exception being those aerosol pollutants that bind
with the oxygen and actually break the cycle - thus causing the "hole"
in the ozone layer).
Things are quite different at ground
level.
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It is often thought, because the ozone layer
is beneficial to us, that ozone itself is a natural, healthy substance.
This certainly is not the case.
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Normal oxygen is itself a
very reactive gas which easily combines with other
substances. It supports combustion and oxidises (or
"breaks down") many materials. For example when oxygen combines
with iron, then rust (iron oxide) is formed. And the green tarnish on
copper is copper oxide. Cooking oil goes rancid and beer and wine go
"vinegary" when oxidised.
But ozone is far more reactive than
oxygen. Because the third oxygen atom is so loosely bonded,
it takes far less persuasion to break away and bind with other
substances so it has far greater oxidising power.
The bleach Hydrogen Peroxide
is formed when ozone dissolves in water. And this is what happens when
it comes into contact with moisture in your eyes, nose and
lungs. Ozone can also perish rubber
and some plastics.
If you've worked in an
office, you'll almost certainly recognise
the smell of ozone - it's that smell that comes out of the
photocopier
and laser printer. That's because they use static electricity
to transfer
the toner powder into an image on paper. And anything that uses high
voltages
in this way has a tendancy to produce ozone.
Health and Safety standards dictate
that the levels must be kept very low, so office equipment is protected
by special ozone filters. If these filters deteriorate and there is
insufficient ventilation, you soon find your eyes starting to sting and
your nose and throat become irritated.
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When building high voltage equipment
it's very easy to generate ozone - almost as a by-product. It is
actually much harder design
equipment that doesn't produce it. Maybe that's why
many ionizer
manufacturers try to sell ozone as if it were somehow beneficial. It
is important to be aware that a badly designed
ionizer may produce
ozone, and with it nitrous oxide. The WHO (World Health Authority)
guidelines, say that the maximum acceptable level of ozone is 0.1ppm
(parts per million). So when purchasing, make sure it is from a
reputable company. (We have tested some "cheap" models in the past, and
they really are unpleasant
to use).
Also, the ionizer's emitter needles
can deteriorate severely in the presence of ozone. In other words, if
the ionizer generates ozone, it will need to have it's needles replaced
quite often. Our Astrid ionizers are specifically designed NOT to
generate ozone, so our needles do not degrade in this way and can be
fitted permanently. Because of
this we are able to align them more accurately than if they were of a
"plug in" type, giving more efficient ion production.
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Watch
out for the words "natural de-odouriser" or "nature's
de-odouriser" when buying an ionizer -- It usually means ozone!!
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But What About All
The Claims Made Of Ozone Generators? Yes, ozone
does kill mould and bacteria - by oxidising them. And it does a very
good job.But it also oxidises and damages the cells in your
body! Ozone generators are used industrially to fumigate
buildings but all living things must be kept well away from
the area.
Being an irritant of the eyes, nose,
throat and lungs, ozone is known to particularly affect asthmatics and
people with respiratory problems (that's why there are public health
warnings issued on the radio and TV when the atmospheric levels begin
to rise). Sadly these are often the very people being sold ozone
generaters to ease their
problems.
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Real life experiences
This is part of a public discussion taken from the newsgroup: alt.support.asthma
Hello All, I've read in this group
that ozone machines are bad news. A friend of mine is really into them
and has them all over his house. When I go there it smells like bleach
or something. I've never had an asthma reaction over there. But then, I
haven't stayed terribly long. Just long enough to fix his computer and
then go on my merry way. Penny for your thoughts....
Your friend sounds like my friend, 4
years ago. Spending too much time there landed me in ER for over 12
hours, in acute pain.
Bunch of tests to rule out anything else, no relief for the pain, until
they could get the testing done. Non-infectious pleurisy. It took two
repeat episodes (in ensuing months) for me to figure out that it was
his
ozone machine. He has since gotten rid of it.
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air
ionizers