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."

What actually 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

....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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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.

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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