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Ozone
Articles
Scientific
and Medical
References on Ozone
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Often times articles are published regarding "Dangers from
Popular Air Purifying Machines".
There will always be ozone critics and rightly so. In a "HIGH"
concentration, ozone is very irritating and can even be
unhealthy.
Water is also a problem when its concentration is too high. It
causes death by drowning, mudslides, property damage, and
disruption of public and private activities. Ingesting too much
water at one time can be poisonous. Fire fits into the same
category. We need fire for all of its practical benefits but we
hate it when it attacks our forests and homes. Sunlight has good
and bad extremes, as well.
Critics like to overlook the positive aspects of ozone. They
cannot dispute the fact that ozone is a natural constituent of
our atmosphere. In fact, the missing ozone in our atmosphere
(the ozone hole) poses significant health hazards for the
earth's human and animal population. Critics can not dispute
that ozone is a strong oxidizer. Nor can they deny that ozone -
in appropriate levels - is "safe" and gives air a freshness
quality that is universally beneficial and appreciated.
Everyone likes the air freshness that we associate with
thunderstorms. We all like the freshness that is common to
beaches, islands, golf courses, forests, and mountainous areas.
There are safe ozone type air purifiers on the market that
replicate mountain fresh air conditions in homes. Millions of
satisfied customers have proven the safety and effectiveness of
these types of purifiers.
One statement that critics often say is "...ozone, the same
chemical that the ARB and the USEPA (U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency) have been trying to eliminate from our air
for decades..." The truth is that these agencies have never set
a goal to eliminate ozone from our air. They've identified ozone
in HIGH levels as an irritating component of city pollution and
tried to control the excesses. To say they wanted to "eliminate"
ozone would be like trying to eliminate humidity from the air as
a precaution against flooding. It's simply wrong! Even when
ozone levels are high outdoors, they still tend to be low
indoors. Ozone MUST be continually replaced through solar
influence (or through an air purifier) or life on earth would
not exist!
Again, ozone is needed to sustain life on earth. To condemn
ozone because of the HIGH levels often found in man made smog
would be like ingesting an entire bottle of pills, then
condemning the drug as being dangerous.
Even OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) cites
the risk of over exposure to one of the most basic elements of
life, Oxygen. Too high a percentage of Oxygen causes weakness,
fatigue, pain in joints and muscles, numbness and tingling in
arms and legs, palpitations, headache, nasal congestion, ear
disturbances, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, fever and
swelling of mucous membranes. Does this mean that we should stop
breathing Oxygen? Per OSHA, Like Oxygen, Ozone at "excessive"
levels has it's downfalls too and can cause headaches, throat
and nasal dryness, bronchitis, decreased pulmonary function
capacity, and other respiratory ailments. Common sense tells us
that too much of anything is typically not good!
The most irritating constituents of smog are hydrocarbon
molecules from cars, sulphur and nitrogen compounds from
industry, and smoke-type pollutants from all sources. Using the
sun's energy, nature reacts to these compounds by increasing the
air's ozone concentrations. The process is easy to explain. In a
smoggy situation, the increased HIGH levels of ozone (while it
is irritating to humans at these levels) actually helps oxidize
away the aforementioned hydrocarbons, sulphur compounds, and
nitrogen compounds. This situation is similar to the body's
immune system responding with an elevated white blood cell count
to fight an infection. Nature's way to combat pollution is an
increased ozone concentration. Yet there are also many benefits
that can be experienced at low safe levels of ozone.
In 2000, a study supported by the California Air Resources Board
(under the auspices of the Long-Term Exposure Health Effects
Research Program) regarding the effects of Air Pollution on
children's lung function growth determined that "ozone did not
play a major role in the pollution's effects on children's
lungs. Instead, the offenders were nitrogen dioxide, microscopic
particles known as particulate matter, and acid vapors. All come
directly or indirectly from the burning of fossil fuels (the
exhaust from a car or truck, for example), as well as from
emissions from industrial plants and other sources." The studies
lead author was W. James Gauderman, Ph.D., USC assistant
professor of preventive medicine. Many experts have singled out
ozone for criticism for fifty years because ozone is so easy to
measure and is an easy "escape goat" that takes the focus off of
the real problem that caused the smog to begin with! Rather than
being an "original constituent" of smog, ozone simply appears as
nature's response to combat the higher concentrations of the
other chemicals in static atmospheric conditions.
A proper beneficial setting for home ozone air purifiers units
would produce an indoor ozone level of .02 to .04 parts per
million-well below what some governments have established as a
safe level (up to .05 ppm). Criticisms in many articles cite
much higher concentrations and the interesting thing is they
never even mention what the safe limit is. Doing so would
remove the controversy of their articles. Controversy is what
sells and that is why ozone critics love to feature ozone as a
"bad guy"! In a nut shell, good news is no news and that is why
you generally will never hear news reporters promoting it as a
good thing!
The greatest opportunity that many reporters are missing is
the fact that the real controversy would be in revealing the
"truth" to the public about why many agencies unethically
downplay ozone. Approaching the controversy from this angle
would allow reporters to still have their "controversial edge"
and most importantly at the same time maintain their integrity.
Hopefully in time as more and more people become educated on the
importance and benefits of ozone, reporters will recognize that
the "truth angle" is their biggest market and their true wild
card!
Many customers of ozone type air purifiers have used them safely
in their homes for over twenty years, and more. Some have had
babies that are now teenagers. Those children have breathed
"ozone purified air" every day of their life and have reaped the
positive benefits of doing so-with no negative effects!
The bottom line is this... At the end of the day the truth will
still be there. Any reporter, politician or agency that
deliberately denies or holds back the truth (both sides of the
story) about ozone or any other helpful life-changing substance,
product or information for their own gain, will ultimately be
exposed in the end!
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