Air purifiers' ozone danger projected

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Information on ozone-generating air purifiers:

ftp://ftp.arb.ca.gov/carbis/board/books/2005/12005/05-1-1pres.pdf

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Purifiers' ozone danger projected

STATE SURVEY: Some machines are likened to " a Stage 2 smog alert going off

in your home. "

January 17, 2007

By DAVID DANELSKI

The Press-Enterprise

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_pureair18.2397c74.htm\

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Purifiers' ozone danger projected

An estimated 828,000 Californians could be endangering their health by

using portable air purifiers that generate lung-irritating ozone,

according to a survey released Wednesday.

The survey commissioned by the California Air Resources Board is a first

step toward a statewide crackdown ordered by state legislators last year.

" Unfortunately, there are some purifiers that emit enough ozone to be a

serious health hazard, especially indoors for the people who have any

respiratory problems, " said former Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, a Democrat

from Agoura Hills who sponsored the legislation.

" It is sort of like having a Stage 2 smog alert going off in your home, "

she said.

The law required the state to test and certify the safety of portable air

purifiers before they can be sold to consumers, Pavley said.

Marketers of ozone generators say that, used properly, the machines remove

impurities from the air. But the air board cites various tests that found

the devices, in addition to emitting ozone, do not clean the air.

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State air-pollution offices have known for more than a decade that some

purifiers emit ozone and had sought legislation to let them regulate the

machines.

It will take another two years before rules go into effect, said Dimitri

Stanich, an air board spokesman. Meantime, the agency also will analyze

" ionizing " machines, such as Sharper Image's Ionic Breeze, which emit

smaller amounts of ozone as a byproduct, he said.

Jan Baker, of Riverside, bought an EcoQuest air purifier for a

construction business about three years ago. Now, to be safe, she uses it

only when no one is in the office.

Baker said regulations are needed now. " Hopefully, it's not too late and

it hasn't done too much damage to seniors and people who have lung

problems, " she said.

In recent years, air purifiers have been aggressively marketed in Southern

California on talk radio and person-to-person through home businesses.

Ozone, in very high concentrations, can be used to sanitize vacant

buildings. But in the air people breathe, is it a known health hazard.

Federal, state and regional air-pollution officials have been trying to

clean up outdoor ozone for decades.

" It's the main constituent of smog, " Stanich said. " It's caustic. It dries

out the lungs. And it's an asthma trigger. It's a nasty thing. "

One company selling ozone-generating machines is Greeneville, Tenn.-based

EcoQuest International. Their machines have been endorsed by talk-show

personality Schlessinger on KFI radio, broadcast from Los Angeles.

Roy , an EcoQuest attorney, said Wednesday that the company still

uses talk radio to sell its products. The company supports " intelligent

regulation " of air purifiers, he said.

If used properly, EcoQuest machines emit only small, harmless amounts of

ozone that remove microbes and other air impurities, said.

" It is really all a question of the degree of ozone, " he said.

In 2005, the Air Resources Board warned people not to purchase any

ozone-generating machines, saying the emissions are harmful and have no

benefits. People might believe their air is cleaner because ozone can

deaden the sense of smell, state air officials have said.

Some air purifiers -- those that force air through filters -- can be

effective in improving indoor air quality, officials and researchers have

said.

In the survey, presented Wednesday in Sacramento, UC Berkeley statistician

H. Lee said the researchers interviewed people in 2,019 homes and

found that 14 percent had some sort of portable air purifier. About half

of the people bought purifiers in hopes of alleviating their asthma or

allergies. About a sixth of the machines in the homes generate ozone.

The statisticians used their results to estimate that 828,000 California

could be exposed to harmful levels of ozone from the machines.

" Most of the owners of air cleaners that generate ozone run them nearly

all the time, " said the report by Lee and other researchers from

Berkeley's Survey Research Center.

" These owners are probably at a higher health risk than normal because of

this pattern of use. "

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For information on ozone-generating air purifiers, go to:

ftp://ftp.arb.ca.gov/carbis/board/books/2005/12005/05-1-1pres.pdf

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