We are well aware that there are ozone (also called O3 or activated oxygen) critics out there. There are three reasons they exist:
The air purification industry is an estimated $90 billion market and ozone is very good at what it does, which is to purify air. There are many companies and organizations that do not want you to know this and will go to great lengths to discredit anybody that tries to introduce you to home air purifiers that use it.
In high concentrations, activated oxygen is very irritating and has the potential to cause damage to your health. This is a valid claim and should not be disregarded however; you need to keep it in perspective. Oxygen in high concentrations is also a hazard. What about water; it causes death by drowning. You also need to be aware of fire, the sun etc. All of these items have great benefits if used properly.
Bad science is probably the worst critic because people place their trust in information received from what they perceive as a legitimate source. Unfortunatly legitamate sources often obtain their information from "experts in the field" that may be influenced by their own agenda. (See reason 1 above)
Critics tend to overlook ozone’s positive aspects and exaggerate the negatives. Even organizations we have come to know and trust can fall into this trap in their attempts to protect the “unsuspecting public” from harm.
For example:
California Air Resources Board (ARB) regarding “Dangers from Popular
Air Purifying Machines” - January 27, 2005
“...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...”
These agencies have never set a goal to eliminate O3 from our air. They’ve identified it as an irritating component of city pollution and tried to control the excesses. To say they wanted to “eliminate” it would be like trying to eliminate humidity from the air as a precaution against flooding. It’s simply wrong. Even when activated oxygen levels are high outdoors, they still tend to be low indoors. Activated oxygen must be continually replaced through solar influence (or through an air purifier). (see video below)
“One study, conducted by the USEPA, ran an ozone generator in a test home at its maximum exceeding 0.3 parts per million (ppm), and an adjacent room’s levels exceeded 0.2 ppm.”
Can you see the fallacy in such a statement? Why would you turn the machine to its maximum setting? Running an air purifier at its maximum setting would be going against the owner’s manual which would instruct the user to set the level based on the room or home size. This is like testing a drug by swallowing the entire bottle then condemning it as being dangerous.
As you can see, even trusted sources can come to bad conclusions when they rely on bad science for their information.
The Fact is Activated oxygen is a natural constituent of air and is the component that provides us the fresh air quality we associate with thunderstorms, beaches, forests and mountain areas. We have all experienced this quality of ozone so how can we doubt its benefits?
Click the graphic to view a short interview with Dr James Marsden of the Kansas State University.
My invitation to you
If you come across a report that appears to call into question the safety or effectiveness of activated oxygen in air purification, please
contact me
and I will do my best to clear up any confusion you might have. My goal in creating this website is to reveal bad science so you can make a good decision when purchasing a product for use in your home or office.
