Adventures In Living and Gardening

Criticism of the ionic air purifier industry is a surething. “No scientific peer review exists” has been a frequent barb posted on influenza, air quality and indoor pollution blogs.

Mr. John Moore, an “insider” of the peer review system, may surprise believers of the peer review system.

He says:

• “a lust for profit has led to too many journals,…all too easy to find…poor-quality work”

• “not everything in the peer-reviewed literature is correct. Indeed, some of it is downright bad science”

• “the peer review system…it’s the least-bad system that can be devised”.

Safety tops all criteria in the selection of an ionic air purifier for use in the home, office, factory or school.

Existing ionic air purifier technology, regardless of whether they originate in North America, Europe, Japan or China produce a primary beneficial reactive agent.Depending on the specific technology, these reactive agents may be called negative ions, bipolar ions, plasmacluster ions and so on. They are produced with the objective of eliminating contaminants in the air we breathe. There is much research on the efficacy of these reactive agents in eliminating these airborne contaminants. What we do not know is whether these same potent reactive agents also cause harm to fragile human tissues such as those that line our breathing passages from the trachea to the lungs.

In a dramatic press update on 27 August 2008, Sharp Corporation unveiled its latest technological weapon against bird flu! Incorporated in its ionic air purifier, the Plasmacluster Ion Technology (more on this in a later post) has just been scientifically proven to be 99.9% effective in eliminating the bird flu virus known as H5N1.

Every now and then, the press reminds us that bird flu is the prime suspect to cause mankind’s next pandemic. Pandemic does not just sound terrifying. It is. That’s when a deadly virus turns totally global, in a very negative sense. 50 million people may die in a global pandemic. No way, you say. But its happened before, during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic! World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on 5 October 2005 that the 1918 Spanish flu was caused by H1N1, a bird flu virus.

Introduction

Ionic air purifiers hold the promise of clean air, purified of all known harmful contaminants that threaten our health. Our naked eyes cannot see these harmful impurities. Invisible ions battling invisible contaminants appears to make perfect sense. Intuitively, the logic is appealing. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution as google throws up an avalanche of controversy within seconds. Even though I am tempted to quickly get an ionic air purifier to clean the air I breathe, it is clear that more time and effort is needed. The search for an ionic air purifier must focus on its safety aspects as much, if not more, than its effectiveness against contaminants.