ABOUT NEGATIVE ION PURIFICATION- IONIZATION

Research Studies and Facts

Negative ions have proven to be safe and effective in a variety of studies. They enhance the efficiency of air filters, and attack airborne particles and pollutants wherever they may be floating.

How Negative Ions Purify the Air

Virtually all particles in the air have a positive charge, while negative ions have a negative charge. In which case, negative ions and particles magnetically attract to one another. When there is a high enough concentration of negative ions in the air, they will attract to floating particles in large numbers. This causes the particle to become too heavy to remain airborne. As a result, the particle will fall out of the air, preventing it from being inhaled into the respiratory tract where it can trigger breathing and health problems.

The ionized particle will then be collected by normal cleaning activities, such as vacuuming or dusting. If the particle happens to be kicked back up into the air again, it will be ionized, and quickly settled out of the air once again.

In nature, negative ions are generated by processes such as sunlight, lightening, waves from the ocean, and from waterfalls. "Concrete Jungles" minimize the natural production of negative ions by disrupting the delicate electrical balance between the atmosphere and the earth. Ionizer/ionic air purifiers recreate them with electrode pins ("needlepoints") to electrically produce negative ions. This method produces a density that is many times higher than the negative ion level found at Niagara Falls, the highest natural producer of negative ions and one of the healthiest environments in the world.

Negative air ionisers wipe out hospital infections

Repeated airborne infections of the bacteria acinetobacter in an intensive care ward have been eliminated by the installation of a negative air ioniser.

In the first such epidemiological study, researchers found that the infection rate fell to zero during the year long trial. "We were absolutely astounded to find such clear cut results," engineer Clive Begg at the University of Leeds, UK, told New Scientist.

Stephen Dean, a consultant at the St James's Hospital in Leeds where the trial took place says: "The results have been fantastic - so much so that we have asked the university to leave the ionisers with us."

The ionisers produce negative air ions that collide with suspended particles and give them a charge. The scientists believe charged particles aggregate together and fall out of the air, thereby disinfecting the atmosphere and stopping the transmission of infection.

"We don't fully understand how it is working, but we suspect it is damaging or killing the bacteria," says Beggs. "But if the ionisers are cleaning the air in this way, we would expect to find more precipitation of acinetobacter on surfaces and this is exactly what we found."

Antibiotic resistant

Acinetobacter infections are often very difficult to treat as the bacterium is resistant to many antibiotics. It poses no real threat to healthy humans but can cause serious infections in people with weakened immune systems.

"Ionisers may become a powerful weapon in the fight against hospital acquired infection," says clinical microbiologist Kevin Kerr, another team member. "People had focused on getting doctors and nurses to wash their hands and had not looked at anything else."

About 10 per cent of infections in the UK's public hospitals have been estimated to be airborne, but Kerr says it may be even higher, as conventional methods to sample airborne bacteria are inefficient.

But although the results are very promising, he adds that further research is needed because acinetobacter infections tend to be cyclical. "They may not be seen for weeks or months and then you see a cluster of infections," he says.

TB target

The team is currently doing more lab studies to see if other organisms may be targeted. Tuberculosis is one promising target.

Brian Duerden, director of the UK's Public Health Laboratory Service, is encouraged by the results. "It is not the whole answer as many infections are spread by touch, but it is a potential addition to the weaponry against hospital infections," he told New Scientist.

Research by electronics company Sharp has shown that positive and negative ions produced by their air conditioning systems can inactivate viruses including influenza. But the new study is the first to link such an effect to reduced infections in hospitals.

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3228-air-ionizers-wipe-out-hospital-infections.htm#.U3oNtSjzcr1

Effects of negative air ionization on Salmonella enteritidis culture

This photo shows the sterilisation effects of negative air ionization on a chamber aerosolised with Salmonella enteritidis. The left sample is untreated; the right, treated. Photo taken in a lab operated by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Source: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/mar00/k8649-2.htm

ABOUT NEGATIVE IONS

Functions and Applications of negative ions

1. Be able to vitalize our cells, increase the oxygen holding capacity of blood and improve metabolism. Teamed with anions, cells are full of vim and vigor.
2. Be able to remove fatigue, boost our resistance to diseases and ameliorant autonomic nervous system. Anions have a substantial curative effect upon headache, insomnia, constipation, melancholy, pollinizes and allergic rhinitis etc.
3. Anions with ozone are able to immediately remove the stink of mold, the offensive odor of smoking, retard and kill colon bacilli, dysenteric bacteria and tubercle bacillus etc. What's more, anions have also a special curative function in treatment of chronic bronchitis and asthma.

Significant of negative ions

CONCENTRATION	CORRELATIVITY
≤ 50 lons/cc	lnduce physiological impediment
1,000_2,000 lons/cc	lnduce physiological impediment
5,000_50,000	lncrease one's immunity & resistance to disease
50,000_100,lons/cc	Kill bacteria & reduce infection disease
50,000_100,lons/cc	Kill bacteria & reduce infection disease
100,000_500,000 lons/cc	Self recovery from disease

Studies Proving the Effectiveness of Negative Ions

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

The U.S.D.A. discovered the following in recent studies conducted in a poultry house, which are notoriously polluted:

• Reduced salmonella (bacteria) transmission between chicks by 98%.
• Reduced airborne salmonella (bacteria) by 95%.
• Reduced airborne dust & particles by 99% in 60 seconds.

Summary of Study from USDA Website

Effect of Negative Ions on Drivers

A study by Toyota Central R & D Labs, Inc. found that negative ions can improve fatigue and cognition of drivers. (Copy of Study - PDF File)

Journal of Hygiene

This scientific publication reports that negative ions cause dust particles to agglomerate and settle out of air. For this same reason, ionization can improve the efficiency of filters.

Good Housekeeping Magazine

In March of 1999, Good Housekeeping Magazine had its engineers test an ionizer by using a smoke test, and found that it cleared out the smoke in a tank.

Journal of Hygiene

Scientists showed that ionization reduced bacterial levels in burns and plastic surgery units by over 96% after a two week period, which results in much better and more rapid healing of patients.

Columbia University

Researchers found people with winter and chronic depression show that negative ion generators relieve depression as much as antidepressants. It was also determined that there are relatively no side effects.

European Respiratory Journal

A statistically significant decrease of carbon monoxide values was found with an ionizer activated. This was discovered by researchers at Brompton Hospital in London, and published in European Respiratory Journal.

Journal of Applied Microbiology

The use of negative ions was even found by scientists to reduce the presence of airborne viruses by about 40%. A study featured in the 1987 issue also showed the negative ions are free from any adverse side effects.

St. James University Hospital

Researchers have found that hospital-acquired infections among patients in the Intensive Care Unit were dramatically reduced when ionizers were introduced - and have remained so since. The ionizers were found to successfully remove bacteria from air, reducing the transmission of infection.

Science Journal

A 1976 study featured in this publication provided evidence that negative ions can have a biologically lethal effect on airborne microorganisms.

Journal of Hygiene

A 1979 study found that using negative ionization in the air protected chickens from airborne infection of the deadly Newcastle Disease Virus.

Journal of Food Protection

A 2001 study found that airborne negative ionization was highly effective at destroying airborne and surface salmonella.

Other Negative Ion Studies:

"Negative Air Ions Stimulate Mitochondria" Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia.