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Isn't it Ionic? Air Purifiers Make Smog

livescience.com — Here's how to create your own personal Stage 2 Smog Alert: Buy an indoor air purifier. Using a popular process called ionization, the air cleaners can actually generate ozone levels in a room that exceed the worst smog days in Los Angeles, a new study finds.

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  • SweetChuck, on 10/12/2007, -2/+30I'm not surprised by this at all. My aunt and uncle freeloader lived in my parents basement for years, they had one of those machines and it tarnished every piece of exposed metal in the basement. We had to replace every ceiling tile, and repaint the walls. It also destroyed several pieces of art.
    • Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Wow, if the effects are that noticeable, I guess it doesn't help that ozone is toxic in large enough levels (which I assume the "worst smog days in LA" might be). And being confined in a room, I wouldn't like to be in that room. Ground level ozone is leading to premature deaths even today, and especially people suffering from asthma should take heed as it has been shown to harm lung function and the respiratory system. It's also been somewhat linked to Alzheimer's.
    • DASK, on 10/12/2007, -9/+16I use one as well; so far I have found the decrease in allergies to be worth the effect.. It definitely strips everything from the air and by using it on low, and with ventilation, the 'bumpercar track' smell can be reduced to zero.. so far no effect on the art :) it's a clear question of cost/benefit for the individual. For me with allergies, definitely worth it... get a properly tested unit appropriate for the size it's filtering and I disagree that there is a problem. Running one on full in a bedroom, or too large of a unit and there is ozone. Figure out if you have a need, then be sensible about the application, that is all :)
    • tapo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12You don't need to worry about the effect, since you don't /need/ to use an ionizing air purifier (like the Sharper Image Ionic Breeze). The best bet for my allergies has been to use a standard HEPA filter. Sure, they can be noisy, but they work and don't pollute the air.
    • compwizz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17Those Ionic air purifiers are a joke. They are terrible are removing airborne particles. I looked at a Consumer Reports magazine that rated all of the air purifiers, the Ionic Breeze was the worst one on the list. It didn't remove hardly any of the contaminates the HEPA purifiers did. The only thing that it did rate good on was noise. One of the ones that rated really good was the one from Oreck. It is really common sense, you need to move the air around to clean it. Those Ionic air purifiers don't have fans, so how do they circulate the air? And if you want to clean the air, you have to move it around to do it. I know that they charge the incoming air and that does create some movement, but no where near the affect of a fan. So don't listen to what they say on those commercials, save your money and buy a good HEPA filter, they are the best.
    • blincoln, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Those Ionic air purifiers don't have fans, so how do they circulate the air?"

      They work like an ion drive, or sort of like the silent submarine drive in The Hunt For Red October - the ionized grid effectively pulls air through with no moving parts. It is *much* less effective than a fan, however, which is why they're not very good at it.

      The "lifters" that crazy UFO fanatics build work on the same principle. The underwater version is called a magneto-hydrodynamic drive. NASA first used an ion drive on the Deep Space One probe, and IIRC its thrust was compared to a mosquito flapping its wings.
  • smellinator, on 10/12/2007, -5/+69Clever headline. I'll give you a digg for that.
    • charbarred, on 10/12/2007, -24/+6I second that!
    • wtfunkymonkey, on 10/12/2007, -20/+5Hell, I didn't even notice it until you pointed it out.
    • boredzo, on 10/12/2007, -21/+7Dugg for the title alone.
    • jerrygofixit, on 10/12/2007, -18/+2Thirded, made me chuckle.
    • whoatemydigg, on 10/12/2007, -26/+10Whoever dugg this story for the title alone is a moron
    • markr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17If digg had a /. style moderating system e.g. "funny" "informative" etc instead of a + / - style one, then comments like those above seconding / thirding etc wouldn't be necessary as people could mod a comment funny...
    • chrizzler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12erm.. the title is ripped from the article.. so while I find it also original it isnt the work from the digger.
    • ScottNY, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5At least the title wasn't "Amazing Apple iPod Wii XBox oh and air purifiers make smog too"
    • SniperX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5A great example of how a good title can be a deciding factor of whether or not a story will get dugg to the main page.
  • thewebguy, on 10/12/2007, -9/+8woah i had no clue. i thought ozone was just like 3 parts oxygen and was good!
  • Fly1m1, on 10/12/2007, -30/+4They don't make smog....They create ozone.... Ozone does not tarnish metals. So Mr. & Mrs. Freeloader Didn't do it in the basement, with the air purifier. It seems to be Professor Plum, the candle stick, in the hall.
    • somerandomnerd, on 10/12/2007, -5/+28Ozone doesn't tarnish metals?

      Right- and water doesn't get things wet.

      Look up "oxidation." Then look up "ozone." See what you learn.
  • somerandomnerd, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13Since when was ozone and smog the same thing?

    Low level ozone is a product of smog- not smog itself.
    • GreenLantern33, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6That's what I was wondering. I thought smog formed from the words smoke and fog, meaning industrial pollutants?
    • DASK, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Exactly. Ozone helps create the nitrogen derivatives that characterize smog; the other ingredients are volatile organic chemicals, etc. If we all walked when possible and use these to strip pollutants... no problem :)
    • donatj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Ozone is known to slow the hearts ability to regulate speed, adding extra strain to it.
  • Arrakistor, on 10/12/2007, -15/+9Ozone is not smog. Ozone is pure oxygen. Infact, it is O3. It deteriorates into O2 O(-?). This is where that ultra clean smell comes from. Technically Ozone is considered a pollutant because it can result in smog formation, but it is pretty harmless in less than 5ppm. Would you call air Smog, simply because it plays a part in the chemical production of smog? Of course not.
    • somerandomnerd, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Apart from being very bad for your lungs, that is.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_ozone#Health_effects
    • dogside, on 10/12/2007, -6/+52 O3 = 3 O2
    • trogdor282, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Saying something is "just" this or that shows lack of basic understanding of chemistry. Put some friendly nitrogen and carbon together and you get Cyanide.
    • kermit44, on 10/12/2007, -0/+45ppm = 5000ppb, which is WAY over any concentration that is 'pretty harmless'. A harmless concentration is zero. Ozone is not pure oxygen, it is hugely volitile and unstable. When the O3 breaks down into O2+O- in the presence of UV light, the O- is even more dangerous to biological tissues than the original ozone molecule.
    • Drizzit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2O3 breaks down into O2 and the extra O is called a free radical. That free radical can kill you.


      Doesent anyone watch ER around here!
  • chrisdelta, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Clever title.
    • whoatemydigg, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3Whoever thinks the title to this story is clever is a moron
  • DASK, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Ozone helps create the nitrogen derivatives that characterize smog, but alo requires volatile organics, UV, etc. If we walk when appropriate and use clean cars/industry (minimize NOx, VOCs), then using these to clean pollutants is not an issue for photochemical smog.
  • brufleth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Huh, my dad (an MD) mentioned this as an aside about 10 years ago when I got an air purifier for my room to help with my allergies. Of course nobody in our family took him too seriously and he said it all depended on how you felt about breathing higher than normal ozone levels. Guess he was right.
  • kwilliam71, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1http://www.digg.com/technology/Sharper_Image_Ionic_Breeze_May_Cause_Lung_Damage
  • bigtallmofo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24This is a serious problem with all of the ionic air purifiers. I had one for a couple years and you can even smell the ozone. The literature for the Sharper Image one says it smells like a fresh spring day... Yeah right. This is likely why Sharper Image is now advertising an "ozone guard" which is a dorky looking extension bolted on to the side of it.

    This isn't even the worst part. The ionic air "purifiers" have been judged by several independent testing labs to be literally worthless in regard to cleaning the air. Sharper Image even sued Consumer Reports (who judged it "ineffective") for disparagement but could not refute that their product was worthless and ended up paying Consumer Reports attorney's fees of half a million dollars. See http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/appliances/sharper-image-lawsuit-ends-505-air-purifier-ionic-air-cleaner.htm?resultPageIndex=1&resultIndex=1&searchTerm=ionic for details.

    Seriously - look up any indepedent review of this product (translated as someone not trying to sell you one) and see what they say about it.
    • asplodzor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Here's an AP article from a year ago saying much the same thing, if anyone wanted another resource: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7391185/
    • zydeco, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10What's almost as bad is that Sharper Image charges $300 and up for the contraptions, when there has to be MAYBE $30 of parts in the device. That's part of why SI sued Consumer Reports: the Ionic Breeze products make up a huge portion of their profits. No more Ionic Breeze, bye bye stock price.
    • djdole, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Those Sharper Image commercials seriously piss me off.
      It's hard to believe people actually buy into that *****.

      They claim their product converts co2 and ozone in the air into pure oxygen. Now unless the FDA and about half a dozen other government agencies have approved in-home nuclear reactions, you can't "convert" carbon into oxygen. And being how ozone is already oxygen and will naturally decay into O2 (as many have already pointed out), it's quite annoying when they claim that it's all due to their product.

      The BEST they could POSSIBLY do is scrub the carbon out of the co2, and collect the dust in the air, but since they don't contain the same technology as an aqualung, it's basically just a glorified dust collector.
      People would be better off just opening their doors and windows and airing the place out every now and again, (and dusting once in a while). Well...that and actually doing research and learning so they woudn't be so easily duped. I guess it's just another example of how "a fool and his money are easily parted".
    • mbeckfl, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5Sharper Image has added a Ozone guard to their products - it looks kinda flimsy, but based on the reviews / research I did before purchasing a unit, they were the only one that did this to make their unit safe(r)
    • Xsecrets, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4maybe it smells like a fresh spring day because a good thunderstorm can cause more ozone than fear mongers like this consider dangerous. And to even think that smog and ozone (O3) are the same is preposterous.
  • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Should have known those things were evil. The Source (aka, Radio Shack bought out by Circuit City) sells USB-power ionizers.
    • twinklyJesus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Tandy Corp. owns Radio Shack...and Circuit City, always has. They are two separate companies owned by a common parent company.
  • lordsandwich, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9This was mentioned as far back as Diggnation #1. The original article came from Consumer Reports.
  • Samus, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Great headline there :)
  • tilleyrw, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3This is a pure propaganda article. A low- to mid- level of ionization (aka ozone) is healthy and provides clean air to breath. Only if your ground-level pollution is high, will the free ions from the generator create pollution (smog).

    NOTE TO IDIOTS: Don't use one if you're in Los Angeles! Elsewhere, use your own judgement.
    • doubleYou, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3If it's propaganda, how does that explain the quote attributed to the chairperson of the California Air Resources Board? CARB is not a competing business, it's a government agency.
    • orykayd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8It's not propaganda according to the EPA, and this is straight off of their website:

      "In one study (Shaughnessy and Oatman, 1991), a large ozone generator recommended by the manufacturer for spaces "up to 3,000 square feet," was placed in a 350 square foot room and run at a high setting. The ozone in the room quickly reached concentrations that were exceptionally high--0.50 to 0.80 ppm which is 5-10 times higher than public health limits (see Table 1).

      "In an EPA study, several different devices were placed in a home environment, in various rooms, with doors alternately opened and closed, and with the central ventilation system fan alternately turned on and off. The results showed that some ozone generators, when run at a high setting with interior doors closed, would frequently produce concentrations of 0.20 - 0.30 ppm. A powerful unit set on high with the interior doors opened achieved values of 0.12 to 0.20 ppm in adjacent rooms. When units were not run on high, and interior doors were open, concentrations generally did not exceed public health standards (US EPA, 1995).

      "The concentrations reported above were adjusted to exclude that portion of the ozone concentration brought in from the outdoors. Indoor concentrations of ozone brought in from outside are typically 0.01- 0.02 ppm, but could be as high as 0.03 - 0.05 ppm (Hayes, 1991; U.S. EPA, 1996b; Weschler et al., 1989, 1996; Zhang and Lioy; 1994). If the outdoor portion of ozone were included in the indoor concentrations reported above, the concentrations inside would have been correspondingly higher, increasing the risk of excessive ozone exposure."

      http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html

      The link is above, go check it out yourselves
    • To0n1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2All smog is pollution, but not all pollution is smog.

      It's been stated above in numerous posts that O3 can (and does) degenerate into O2 and 1 O- (aka, an ion).

      Let's review what Oxygen is. A poison (in sufficient quantities) an Oxidizer (rust promotion), a carcinogen (when an ion, causing free radicals), an explosive (when compressed), and a fuel source.

      Retake some HS Chemistry (and maybe some biology, college introductory level) to understand the full effects =)
  • jer2eydevil88, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Well I didn't know and now that I do I will spread the word... thanks for this :-)!!
  • x1987x, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Ask anyone in the air conditioning industry. They know about ozone, and ozone generators - you are to only use them when not at home! They generate free radicals that probably destroy pollutants but also enter your body and cause cancer - least that's what scientists say makes cancer. Ozone is a free radical
    • mgarland, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ozone is not a free radical. A disassociated oxygen atom (which can be generated when ozone - O3 - interacts with other molecules) is the free radical that can bond with and damage DNA.
    • rshinra, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0mgarland makes a good point. O3 isn't a Free radical, the O1 ion that comes off of it is.
  • richstyles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12just buy plants
    • whoatemydigg, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1I hear ozone is actually good for plants
    • Arrakistor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually, ozone is bad for plants. It slows growth rates by over 30% in pollution levels.
  • DanAtkinson, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1I love the pun! Very nice!
  • thatsiebguy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2I smell a class-action! Quick! Everyone jump on!

    After the first lawsuit, they started sticking those "anti-ozone" doohickies on the front of them, as if that was going to help...
  • donatj, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7My mom purchased an Ionizer and upon using my dad started getting terrible chest pains. I don't doubt this at all.
    • twinklyJesus, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4my mommy purchased an ionizer one day when we had beans for dinner. then she turned it on and we all got the farts.
  • brotherfigure, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5I made the mistake of buying one from Sharper Image years ago. All it did was make the bedroom smell like Kinkos, and the static electrical discharge between the rods and the ionizing wires sound like a bug zapper.

    My dust problems weren't solved until I bought a real air purifier. It's a Mitsubishi PlasmaPure, by the way. It's quiet, and works like a charm.
  • feedmecereal, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Check out the Google AdSense advertisements this page has generated. Now, isn't that ironic?
  • PumpkinEscobar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3These ozone air cleaners do not trap the dust particles in the air, they charge them and the dust then sticks to the walls and furniture. I have a Shaklee Air Source and the dust around where it sits is heavier than elsewhere.
  • kcghost, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Wait, thats not Smog, It's Smug! Ionic Air purifyers create smug! (South Park reference :) )
  • antdude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Rats, I have one of these due to my bad allergies. Even now, my eyes are itchy like mad (almost pink eyes). And yes, I use eye drops (a subscription for bottle and Refresh Plus dispoable drops) and Claratin pills. :(
  • kermit44, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4OZONE IS HUGELY BAD FOR EVERYTHING LIVING. I am a PhD in Plant Biology studying the damage caused to crops by ozone (its bad - billions of $$ lost each year just from corn and soybean alone). All plants are harmed some by ozone over 40ppb (ppb NOT ppm parts per billion is 1000X less than parts per billion - so whoever thought that ozone under 5ppm wouldnt hurt you is DEAD wrong... 5ppm = 5000ppb and ozone warning days alert you when the atmospheric concentration gets over 70ppb)

    ozone is more than just that 'burnt smell' - if you can smell it, then it is WAY over a healthy concentration, and get out now, it is causing lots of damage to your lung tissue. Allergies are uncomfortable (I know, I have them!), ozone can cause damage that will shorten your life.

    Ozone is NOT pure oxygen. Have you heard about the health benifits of antioxidants? antioxidants fight oxidizing compounds, which cause aging effects, cancer, and much more - ozone is an oxidizing compound - causes damage to all things biological.
    • Nitro2985, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You don't write like one would expect a PHD to write.
  • Xalorous, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smog

    Learn something new every day...
    • cut-u, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0i was hoping someone would have that link. I remember when these things first came out i got one and was telling my chem prof about it. he got very upset by the fact that it released O3 and started asking how much of it and such and i had no idea since sharper image didn't want people to know. good to see this is getting more press now.
  • rabiddogma, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This is kind of an old story. But worthy I guess since a lot of people don't seem to know about this yet. There was a story (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7391185/) I read about a year ago where the company that makes the Ionic breeze, Sharper Image was suing Consumer Reports for blowing the wistle on this sham.
  • CTRaider, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2These things always make my wife and I sick just walking in an area with one. We can't even go into a Brookstone or a Sharper Image store.

    Thanks for the article tho.
  • azrael13666, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0So if id have to get an air purifier, what would some of you recommend?
    • Otto, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2azrael: It depends on what you're getting it *for*.

      If you're getting one to clean the air of dust and other heavy airborne particles, then a HEPA filter is your best bet. Something with a big enough fan that can suck up all the air in the room. Bigger = better. Just be aware that you have to replace those filters and it ain't quiet.

      If you only want to suck up smoke and other light particulates, then there's nothing particularly bad about the Ionic Breeze except the ridiculously high price. It does not generate enough ozone to increase the ozone levels in any given room, because it is not an ozone generator. It's an electrostatic filter. It'll work for smoke, but that's about all it will work for. And it costs way too much. Although it is totally silent.

      Anything else out there doesn't much work. You can either blow air through a filter or use the electrostatic filter mechanism. Anything that claims to generate ozone (as the main way it cleans the air) doesn't work and is bad for you, as explained above.
  • greenflash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Talking about smog, i'm going to Asia this summer and the smog is often very bad, especially when the Indonesians burn down their forests. Does anyone know a good smog protection mask suitable for travel?
  • Acill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I found it a bit funny that an article talking about the dangers of these machines has google ads that link to places to buy them. I guess they need to still work the bugs out of google ads.
  • gert2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They could put CFCs in the purifiers.
  • code_of_life, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2anyone want a slightly used Sharper Image Ionic Breeze ?
  • 1337geek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3WHAT THE *****, I BOUGHT ONE YESTERDAY!
  • Otto, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3People, they are talking about Ozone Generators. Not the Sharper Image Ionic Breeze.

    -Ozone Generators are devices designed specifically to clean the air by putting out Ozone.
    -The Ionic Breeze is *not* an Ozone Generator. It cleans the air by using an electrostatic filter. It can generate extremely small amounts of ozone, yes, but not nearly as much as what an ozone generator does. Your TV can generate extremely small amounts of ozone too.

    The Ionic Breeze and other electrostatic air cleaning systems do work, they are a proven technology and they have have been in use for 30 years or more. What they don't do is actually work very well.

    The way an electrostatic air filter works is that there's charged wires running up and down the back of the thing. This charges the dust and other particles in the air and causes them to be attracted to the oppositely charged plates. Simple.

    Any ozone generated is extremely small because the charged ozone will be attracted to the plates and turned into normal oxygen there. Only the most lucky particles of ozone will be moving fast enough to overcome that attraction. The things do not appreciably increase the ozone in a closed room. Ozone doesn't live long enough for them to have that effect.

    The more legitimate gripe about the Ionic Breeze is that it doesn't work. This is true, depending on your definition of work. It won't suck up dust like a fan and filter arrangement will. Anything heavier than air will probably not make it to the Ionic Breeze device to get sucked up. But, it certainly will suck up smaller airborne particles, like smoke and anything that hangs around in the air a while. On that level, they work quite well. And electrostatic filters in general work very well when you combine them with a fan arrangement, like on the whole house systems. They're just a bitch to clean.

    But Ionic Breeze devices do not make dangerous ozone levels. This is a misunderstanding of the technology and a confusion between other dangerous devices that DO make ozone. Lots of devices make ozone as their primary means of cleaning the air. They even *say* they make ozone. Those are the ones to avoid.

    The Ionic Breeze is just overpriced, not dangerous.
    • swax, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Its funny you say its extremely small, but I can still smell it. You do know that if you can smell ozone there is an unsafe amount of it in the air right? Ionic air purifiers should be banned.
    • MuglyWumple, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A CLEAN Ionic Breeze (and its ilk) produces little ozone, BUT as the electrostatic plates get dirty they begin to spark. This sparking substantially increases the amount of ozone produced.
    • code_of_life, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Only the new Sharper Image Hybrid product (released May 8th 2006) is said to not produce ozone.
      see http://www.airpurifiers.com/technology/ionic-breeze.htm

      Consumer Reports also repeatedly found that they do produce ozone.
  • code_of_life, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2dude, read the title and read the article,
    Air Purifiers that purify via ionization produce O3, thats EXACTLY what the ionic breeze does.

    There is no "OZONE GENERATOR".

    Quote:
    "Here's how to create your own personal Stage 2 Smog Alert: Buy an indoor air purifier.
    Using a popular process called ionization, the air cleaners can actually generate ozone levels in a room that exceed the worst smog days in Los Angeles, a new study finds. "

    • Otto, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"Air Purifiers that purify via ionization produce O3, thats EXACTLY what the ionic breeze does."

      No, actually, it's not. The Ionic Breeze is an electrostatic precipitator. Take a look at one sometime. It has wires running down the inside and three removable flat plates which collect the dust and such.

      From http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/residair.html#Electronic%20air%20cleaners :
      "In electrostatic precipitators, particles are collected on a series of flat plates."

      THAT is what the Ionic Breeze device does.
  • jaiden, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1As some have mentioned, "indoor air purifier" does not equal "ozone generator":
    http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/residair.html#Electronic%20air%20cleaners
    Electronic air cleaners use an electrical field to trap charged particles. Like mechanical filters, they may be installed in central heating and/or air-conditioning system ducts or may be portable units with fans. Electronic air cleaners are usually electrostatic precipitators or charged-media filters. In electrostatic precipitators, particles are collected on a series of flat plates. In charged-media filter devices, which are less common, the particles are collected on the fibers in a filter. In most electrostatic precipitators and some charged-media filters, the particles are deliberately ionized (charged) before the collection process, resulting in a higher collection efficiency.

    Ion generators also use static charges to remove particles from indoor air. These devices come in portable units only. They act by charging the particles in a room, so they are attracted to walls, floors, table tops, draperies, occupants, etc. In some cases, these devices contain a collector to attract the charged particles back to the unit.

    (Note: The latter two types of devices may produce ozone, either as a byproduct of use or intentionally. Concerns about ozone production are discussed in more depth later.) See also "Ozone Generators that are Sold as Air Cleaners: An Assessment of Effectiveness and Health Consequences".

    Some newer systems on the market are referred to as "hybrid" devices. They contain two or more of the particle removal devices discussed above. For example, one or more types of mechanical filters may be combined with an electrostatic precipitator or an ion generator.

    In addition to particle removal devices, air cleaners may also contain adsorbents and/or reactive materials to facilitate removal of gaseous materials from indoor air. Air cleaners which do not contain these types of materials will not remove gaseous pollutants. The potential effectiveness of air cleaners containing these materials in reducing levels of gaseous pollutants in indoor air is discussed later.
  • GhengisKhan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Good topic. Great title.
  • kc7gr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm surprised no one mentioned that high concentrations of ozone can also destroy anything containing natural rubber or neoprene. This includes (but may not be limited to) wetsuits and other diving or snorkeling gear, elastic compounds used in socks and underwear, rubber rollers in tape drives, VCRs, and other electronic widgets, car door seals, etc.

    I'm not certain, but I recall that silicone rubber compounds are immune to this effect. Perhaps someone else knows for sure?

    When we had our furnace replaced, and added central A/C, we had the matching electrostatic cleaner installed. It generates barely any ozone at all, and has made a huge difference for myself and my wife (we're both allergy-prone). Interestingly enough, the instruction labels on the thing clearly state that it must be used with a prefilter (translation: the furnace's main filter) to be effective.

    Keep the peace(es).
  • johndi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1OH NOES Trees contribute to the creation of ozone, quick cut down all the forests! Seriously trees contribute to ozone. It's not the boogieman they want you to think it is, however too much is definitely harmful. Drinking too much water can kill you too. Moderation is a good thing.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3700565.stm
  • carve, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I agree- not suprising at all. The thing makes IONS forchristsakes. Free radicals, of which ozone is one.

    Furthermore, these things don't do a very good job of cleaning particles out of the air compared to a regular HEPA filter (according to a Consumer Reports test)
  • radon1818, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This is very old news, and now you can buy purifiers that have little stickers identifying them as "ozone free."
  • glitchbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"that" free radical can kill you o0, excuse me but ANY free radical can do damage to any one.
    • VorpalK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Which, of course, is why radicals should be locked up! It's so obvious!

      What?
  • Hydroxyethyl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I built an ozone chamber at work (1ppm levels) for testing various products. You have to be very careful what materials you expose to ozone. For example, If you take a standard latex glove and expose it to high levels of ozone it will literally crumble to dust when you touch it. Breathing in high levels basically crosslinks the collagen in your lungs. This is not my idea of pure air.
  • MrGeneric, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Add a filter coated with palladium, as catalyst, and the ozone will decompose to O2, problem solved.

    Next!
    • Hydroxyethyl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah that works:

      if you pass all the air over the catalyst (no leaks),
      if you maintain a high enough temperature (is it winter and 58F, too bad).
      if you have enough surface area to consume all that is generated (hey don't let that pesky dust get in your way).

      In the real world an ozone reduction filter slapped in front of the generator will not get rid of all the ozone. It probably does enough to satisfy some federal requirement when the unit is new.
  • hiro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There are some very clueless bar room "scientists" commenting on this thread!

    Frightening to think that some of them have responsible jobs that could have an impact on our daily lives

    I mean, who wants cold fries with their burger?
  • fastfood15, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1DUPE this was one of the first stories that they talked about on diggnation

    http://digg.com/technology/Proof_that_the_Ionic_Breeze_Air_Purifier_is_Junk
  • loureiro97, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it's quite obvious that air purifieirs don't really purify air, instead they pollute it, hence the smog
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