Ozone is created when oxygen molecules in the air are split into two separate atoms. These freed atoms of oxygen recombine to form the tri-tomic form of oxygen, or ozone.
We frequently associate ozone with the protective layer of this gas high above the earth which protects us from the extreme ultraviolet radiation given off by the sun. If this ozone layer were to be seriously depleted, more ultraviolet radiation would reach the earth's surface, fatally irradiating most living things.
We also associate ozone with air pollution or smog. Ozone is a component of smog. Ozone is photochemically created at ground level when auto exhaust emissions become exposed to sunlight. So it's a convenient index to associate ozone content in the air as a measure of air pollution. Ozone is not specifically the problem. However, the photochemically produced ozone, along with other elements of pollution, is unhealthy. Ozone breathed in small concentrations is a nasal irritant. People with respiratory problems such as asthma can have serious reactions from exposure to ozone.
The average ozone level in the air is between .03 and 0.5 parts per million. The highest levels of natural, or healthful ozone, are detectable in the air following thunderstorms and in the air surrounding waterfalls.
Ozone is one of the most effective sanitizers and deodorizers known. Unlike what most people believe, ozone doesn't just cover up odors. The effectiveness of ozone comes from its ability to combine with bacteria, viruses and all disease and odor causing organisms at a molecular level and destroy them. The pathogenic cell's outer membranes actually absorbs ozone. Ozone breaks down the nuclei of the cell, destroys the inner organism, causing cellular death.
Ozone was discovered by Christian Schoenbein in 1840. He described ozone as "electrolytically produced oxygen". Ozone can be produced by passing oxygen between two materials of differing electrical potentials. One material positively charged, the other negatively. This electrical discharge causes some of the oxygen molecules to take on another atom of oxygen and form ozone.
If ambient air is used as the source gas to generate ozone, the discharge contains oxides of the other components of air, such as nitrogen. Oxygen has been the choice source gas for discharge based ozone generators for years.
Ozone generators which closely simulate how ozone is produced in nature, use light as the catalyst. Tubes made of crystal and using a specific mercury vapor light source create ultraviolet light of 185mn wave-length. This light catalyzes oxygen to take on another atom of oxygen, creating ozone; without any harmful byproducts. The difficulty of the UV method of ozone generation is that it takes a large tube to create a significant amount of ozone.
Ozone is an unstable molecule, a "free
radical" of oxygen, which readily decomposes, giving up one atom of oxygen. This is what makes ozone a powerful oxidizing agent, toxic to most organisms.
The largest commercial use of ozone is in the purification of water. Ozone is certified by both the FDA and the EPA as destroying 99.9992% of all pathogenic germs and a the same time oxidizing (destroying) 99.9992% of all pollutants in the water.
Ozone is a very strong, broad spectrum disinfectant. Ozone is used for purifying drinking water throughout Europe. It is an effective method to inactivate harmful protozoans. It works well against almost all other pathogens. To purify water with ozone, the ozone must be generated on-site and added to the water by bubble contact. The advantage of purifying water using ozone instead of chlorine is that ozone leaves no potentially hazardous by-products in the water. Ozone in water purification has no odor, does not adversely affect the taste of the water, and reverts to oxygen well before the water is consumed.
Ozone has been used in drinking water plants since 1906 where the first industrial ozonation plant was built in Nice, France. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted ozone as being safe; and it is increasingly used as an anti-microbiological agent for the treatment, storage, cleaning and processing of fresh foods. When properly used ozone is one of most effective disinfectants we have.
Ozone has also been approved for use in hospitals as an effective way to sterilize surgical instruments. The most important aspect of this advancement is that ozone does not leave behind a toxic residue. Chemical cleaners must be rinsed off the instruments, so the possibility of incomplete cleaning and remaining chemical residue is always a possibility.
Ozone therapies have been used medically for over 100 years. The basis of ozone therapy is that ozone oxidizes anaerobic cells; viruses, microbes, bacteria, fungi, etc. Healthy cells are aerobic and are not affected. Medical uses of ozone therapies include:
- Isolated Surface Exposure - a limb or part of the body is isolated and enveloped in an airtight tent or bag. Ozone is injected and exposed to the skin of the patient, treating whatever lesions are present
- Rectal Insufflation - Ozone is injected into the rectal cavity. This area is rich in capillaries so blood supply is high. Ozone is absorbed into the blood stream as oxygen and works to kill circulating pathogens.
- Ozonation of the blood using autotransfusions. Viruses in the bloodstream, including the AIDS virus have been deactivated. (Journal of The American Society of Hermatology 1 Oct. 1993 Inactivation of HIV Type I by Ozone in Vitro, Wells, Latino, Galvachin, Poisez)
- Ozone Spa and Sauna - ozone is absorbed through the skin
The lethal effects of ozone on pathogenic organisms has been documented since the end of the 19th century. Ozone is such a strong germicide or sterilant, you need only a few micrograms per liter to measure its activity. At a concentration of 1 g/m 3H20 at 1 degree C., ozone quickly destroys coliform bacteria, staphylococcus aureus and aeromas hydrophilia.
The inactivation rate of enteroviruses is even more rapid than for e. coli, and takes place in a small concentration of ozone, and with the presence of ambient organic compounds.
Viruses are different in their susceptibility to inactivation by ozone. The resistance of poliovirus, type 2, was 40 times that of coxsachie. In pure water at maximum solubility of ozone and room temperature, echovirus 29 is destroyed in only 1 minute, poliovirus type 1 in 2 minutes, type 3 in three minutes, and type 2 in seven minutes.
Properties of Ozone
- Deactivation of bacteria and germs
- Inactivation of viruses
- Fungicide
- Reduction of noxious odors
- oxidation of minerals
- Flocculation of minerals (substance comes out of a homogenous mixture by adhesion)
- Oxidation of heavy metals
- Flocculation of heavy metals
- Oxidation of cyanide and phenol
- Oxidation of organic compounds
- Increases oxygen levels
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