Ionizers are used to create negative ions through an electrical current. Ionizers are great for electrically charging air particles in your home, and creating these negative ions, which are supposed to be beneficial for your health and wellbeing.
Let’s find out exactly how these machines work and ultimately whether they are good or bad for you.
What is an Ionizer Supposed to Do?
Ionizers have been researched over the years, and the results tend to suggest that ionizers can have a benefit on your overall mood – as in, they can make you more positive and happier.
Also, ionizers can be used to help clean the air around you, much like an air purifier would. In fact, the biggest difference between an air purifier and an ionizer is that the ionizer uses ionizing as its primary air cleaning technology, whereas you’re more likely to find a HEPA filter inside an air purifier.
So How Does an Ionizer Work?
An ionizer emits negative ions into the air around you, which connect to positive ions that they come into contact with. These positive ions could be dust, germs, dander or dirt – or any other contaminating particle floating through the air.
Once the negative ions have connected with the positive contaminants, they become too heavy to float and instead, they’ll fall and stick to the walls or floor, depending on which they come into contact with first.
The Ionizer Smell
Due to the way they work, ionizers do give off a distinct smell. This has been described as being a bit of an antiseptic smell. This smell comes from something called ‘ozone’.
Ozone is known for ‘oxidizing pollution’, or more accurately, the air around you. When this happens, the air changes, and naturally, you’re more than likely to breathe it in, transferring it to your lungs where damage can occur.
Luckily, the damage doesn’t occur immediately, so you can use an ionizer for a long period of time before any real damage takes place, but it’s certainly something that you’ll want to keep an eye on.
When inhaled in high quantities, ozone will have harmful consequences, such as damaging your lungs, chest pain, coughing, or shortness of breath.
Ionizer’s at Home & in the Work Place
Ionizers aren’t known to be the most productive pieces of equipment. Even if you buy a large ionizer that’s fit for a big room or even an office, you won’t see great results straight away. That’s a double-edged sword though. They won’t damage your lungs very much, but that’s because they’re not working at their best capacity either.
If you are looking for a personal ionizer, a small portable ionizer would fit perfectly on a desk or worktop. This is great for ridding the air of contaminants as you work, which is beneficial to your health.
Conclusion
As you can see, whilst ionizers do work well at getting rid of airborne contaminant particles that can be bad for your health, this could still be at a cost to your health. Ionizers are both good and bad for you – although with the negatives outweighing the positives, we’d rather stick to an air purifier for long term help.
If you have any questions or comments, please add them below in the comment section. Similarly, please let us know if you spot any mistakes or omissions. Thanks!
