Rush hour in downtown Los Angeles, California on highway 110.
When local or state governments keep an eye on local air pollution problems, one of the contaminants they look at is ozone. Ozone is a chemical composition that can come from natural sources, but it’s also a byproduct of vehicle exhaust and various kinds of Industrial processes.
It can also aggravate the lungs, and even cause dire health conditions, especially in higher concentrations. It can be dangerous.
A recent article in the Columbus Dispatch shows the mid-Ohio regional planning commission issuing an air alert quality in the middle of July for Central Ohio, largely over ozone levels.
Meteorologists showed how a high-pressure weather system and other conditions led to more ozone pollution at the ground level.
Identifying light and variable surface winds, they looked at how ozone is pushed around the area in gusts. They explained how:
- Ozone often forms on a warm day
- It thrives in a stagnant environment
- It often comes from pollution from factories and cars
- Sunny conditions are part of the equation
- A warm inversion layer can develop, driving higher concentrations locally
Officials also asked people to limit the use of gasoline engines in the area. According to experts, the state of alert was only predicted to last a few days. But it brings more attention to the issue of ozone in general, and its role in air pollution in particular.
Outdoor and Indoor Ozone
In the outdoors, ozone will build up like it did in Central Ohio, and possibly trigger advisories.
Indoors, it can be harmful at even higher concentrations, and cause extreme symptoms like coughing and choking. That’s because, in most modern buildings, air is really sealed in. For most of the year, in hot and cold seasons, that air just stagnates, and the bad stuff crawls around without being dispersed, like it is outside.
To make things worse, there are various sources of ozone that can get into indoor air in your home.
These include:
- Residual ozone from gasoline engines
- Ozone from soils
- Ozone from machines generating this substance to control odors
Even some kind of air purifiers create ozone, which is very confusing to people who are researching this for the first time.
What About Ozone From Air Purifiers?
It’s true that some models, like some of those that have ionizers, emit ozone, and that some people who are removing odors from buildings use ozone generators indoors. People should always take care to stay out of a building where a machine, any machine, is generating ozone. They should also stay out for a particular amount of time after the machine has ceased running.
This can be confusing especially for people who are just beginning to research ozone and air quality.
If you are looking for an air purifier that does not add harmful levels of ozone to the air yet filters the air, visiting USAirPurifiers.com has many options. The right air purifiers are often very effective in removing ozone that’s indoors in higher concentrations. Experts often recommend using machines with HEPA filters to try to remediate ozone in a building.
Another way to research this is to go over to Reddit, where people are telling personal stories about what happened to them in a building.
You can see that running an ozone machine will generate high levels of ozone inside the home, and should really be avoided in many cases. You’ll hear how people entered rooms with high ozone levels, and experienced respiratory conditions like coughing or trouble breathing. You’ll even hear one poster talking about how he started “coughing up green stuff” after being exposed to high levels of ozone, and how he was completely surprised by the health risks that he and others faced.
Uses of Ozone Machines: Why Do People Turn Them On?
People often use ozone machines to try to get rid of pet odor in a building. But they create these harmful conditions without knowing it. They may not realize that an airing out time frame is mandatory to avoid triggering certain health risks.
By contrast, activated carbon helps to reduce odors, and doesn’t emit any ozone at all, so this is a good alternative.
Ozone and Secondary Conditions
Many people who use an ozone machine realize that ozone stays in the air for quite a while. That can mean people inadvertently expose themselves to ozone and its potential dangers. Ozone may also leave behind some telltale signs. More than one person chronicling their problems with ozone has mentioned that after it disperses, it may leave behind VOCs that the ozone has leached out of furniture, building materials, or consumer products.
In other words, the ozone binds to other chemicals, and the resulting processes can release other nasty compounds into the air. People are left trying to figure out how soon they can return to a building, and how dangerous these pollutants are to their health.
In the case of our poster who was coughing up something because of high ozone, he was trying to get a building rented, and ended up realizing that no one could go in for a while. Some people blindsided by these kinds of problems realize that there’s not a ton of literature about ozone remediation online.
So if you have ozone buildup inside a home, it’s not a good situation to be in, and the solutions are potentially pretty complex. It’s good to know all of these things about ozone before choosing an air purifier machine.
US Air Purifiers LLC can help: for years we have been advising customers on what to buy, what the newest technology looks like, and what suits a particular use or space. Get confidence about the air around you with the right air purifiers for your home or business.