Ionic home air cleaners discover from a multitude of technologies, all of which contain more than one beneficial reactive agents that claim to clean the air that we breathe. Manufacturers willingly publish test leads to demonstrate the capability of these reactive agents against harmful pollutants.
Safety First — Beneficial Reactive Agents
Unfortunately, manufacturers are not as future with information on the potential harm to human tissue of users who face the reactive agents. The in-depth article ecoquest purifier dealing with this aspect is posted at EzineArticles. com.
Safety First Redux — Unintentional By-products
Manufacturers are also not future about the by-products of their technology. Unbeknownst to many users, all ionic air cleanser technologies generate by-products independent of the beneficial reactive agents. They are not by choice produced but are only unintentional products resulting from current technological difficulties.
Ozone, an element pollutant of smog, is the most common of these by-products. Smog, which hangs like a foggy fog up over some cities, is typically produced by the reaction of sunlight on auto emissions such as h2o and monoxide. Ozone in smog is attributed for many affilictions.
Please note that this article is not a discussion about ozone generators, a class of home air cleaners that by choice produces ozone in high enough levels to eliminate airborne pollutants. For instance, some hotels use ozone generators to get rid of tobacco smoke from rooms when they are increasingly being prepared for the next guest.
It is commonly accepted that ozone generators pose a danger to human tissue because ozone is an extremely reactive oxidizing agent. However, for some strange reason, ozone generators are still freely sold to home users as home air cleaners. This controversy probably warrants another round of in-depth research in future.
All Ionic Home air cleaners Produce Some Ozone As a By-product
The focus of this article is on ionic home air cleaners that do not by choice produce ozone. There is no argument that all ionic air cleanser technologies are currently unable to completely eliminate ozone in the process of producing their beneficial reactive agents, be they negative ions, bipolar ions or plasmacluster ions and so on. It is a question of how much ozone is produced as an unintentional by-product and at which point it becomes unhealthy and harmful to users of the ionic air cleanser.
Most manufacturers emphasize that the ozone produced by their technology is very minimal. Often, they claim that it is way below 50 parts per thousand (ppb), a measure of ozone concentration commonly specified by various parties around the world. Interestingly, there is no established legislation, only guidelines, unsafe effects of that ionic home air cleaners cannot produce ozone in excess of 50 ppb. This leads us to another location question.
Is Ozone Concentration At 50 ppb Safe?
It is an even more important question for users (who typically have the respiratory system problems) of such devices since they may be do harm to themselves after spending good money on the they believe to be best for their health. It should also be of great concern to health authorities since they are entrusted with setting safety standards that govern manufacturers and that users rely on when they use such equipment.
One would assume that the 50 ppb limit was scientifically set by some authorities, either medical or governmental. Shockingly, this does not seem to be the case. In fact, a prominent environmentalist suggested that this limit was randomly set in the usa FDA Change Act 1972 without any scientific basis. Yet, the 50 ppb figure is normally specified, not just by manufacturers of ionic home air cleaners but by health authorities all over the world as well.
To add to the controversy, the 50 ppb limit under the US FDA Act only applies to an air cleanser that is sold as a medical device! Now, that’s easy to circumvent. It is not common to see home air cleaners being advertized as medical equipment. They are typically sold as appliances for improving air quality in the house, office, manufacturing plant or school. But to their credit, manufacturers of many ionic home air cleaners are of your accord using 50 ppb as a safety limit.