By Debbie Davis

There are numerous air filtration technologies available on the market today. And it can sometimes be daunting to try to determine which purification method is safe, effective, and best for you and your family.

Using ozone as a filtration method should be investigated thoroughly before making it your choice. Here is important information to have before choosing an air purifier that emits any ozone.

What is ozone? It is a gas that can produce both good and bad effects. In our homes and in the air that we breathe, it is harmful. Outdoors it is the main component of smog which depletes the ozone layer, and a depleted ozone layer interferes with plant growth, increases the chance of skin cancer, eye, and lung damage.

In the upper atmosphere-mainly the stratosphere-it is considered good in that it helps to keep the sun”s harmful ultra-violet radiation away from the earth. So your health implications from it depend directly on your proximity to it.

How does this type of filtration work? These cleaners intentionally produce ozone that claims to eliminate pollutants. The theory is that of the 3 oxygen atoms that comprise ozone, 2 are stable and one is not. The unstable atom breaks away from the other 2 and combines with airborne pollutants. And this is where findings vary.

Some studies have found that the chemical reaction, when it occurs, often emits other harmful pollutants while still failing to remove the original ones. Additional studies have shown that it takes long periods of time for the unstable oxygen atom to combine with any of the pollutants. However, the one thing that the majority of studies agree on is that ozone gas is at best ineffective and at worse, harmful.

If my air purifier has an EPA number, does that mean it has been certified as safe? No. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assigns numbers to some of the manufacturers who make these purifiers so that they know exactly where the product was made. This number should not be taken as either approval of, effectiveness, or safeness of the unit.

How safe is it? The American Lung Association and many in the medical community contend that any amount of ozone around people and pets is unsafe. The closer you are to where the ozone is emitted from the purifier, the more at risk you are. And exposure over a prolonged period of time exponentially increases chances of health issues.

Is it an effective means of removing airborne allergy and asthma triggers? Numerous studies have found that in order for it to be effective, ozone levels would have to be phenomenally high. Many units come with ionizers that generate a charge that causes pollutants to clump together and become heavy enough to fall out of the air. But testing has revealed that even with the addition of this feature, they are still way less effective than high efficiency particle arresting (or HEPA) cleaners.

Is there a safer filtration technology? Yes there is; and if we look to the medical community as a model, it uses high efficiency particle arresting (HEPA) filtration because it has been proven to be not only effective but safe in removing airborne triggers that can cause or exacerbate respiratory conditions such as allergy and asthma.

About The Author

An excellent HEPA air purifier that emits zero ozone and that will remove pollutants from your air is offered by PurerAir.com– the Allergy Machine Air Purifier. See it now at http://purerair.com/allergy_machine.html
Debbie Davis, President, PurerAir.com