Did you know that ionizers have several potential benefits, including better air quality, reduced allergens, and improved respiratory health? They can even improve your mood.
All of Carico’s air products have a feature that produces you to choose whether or not to introduce negative ions into your environment.
Ions And Improved Air Quality.
Ionizers are devices designed to improve indoor air quality by releasing negatively charged ions into the air. These negatively charged ions attach to airborne particles, such as dust, pollen, and other pollutants, causing them to become heavier and fall to the ground, thus helping a quality air filter remove them from the environment.
Studies have shown that ionizers help reduce airborne particles, such as dust and allergens, leading to potentially improved air quality. For example, a study published in the Journal of Hygiene, Epidemiology, Microbiology, and Immunology (Vol. 35, No. 3) found that negative ionization led to a decrease in airborne dust particles in an office environment.
Another study concluded that air ionizers are more suited than high-flow air filters in removing ultrafine particles from rooms larger than about 25 m3. The investigation also showed that small ions produced by the ionizer, placed in one room, were carried through the air conditioning system into other rooms, effectively removing particles from the air in these rooms in the process. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304388617302279
Allergen reduction: Negative ionization helps to reduce allergens in the air, benefiting individuals with allergies or respiratory conditions. https://karger.com/iaa/article-pdf/141/4/311/2956863/000095456.pdf
Respiratory health: Some studies have explored the potential effects of ionizers on respiratory health. For instance, a study published in the European Respiratory Journal (Vol. 42, Suppl 57) suggested that negative ionization might have beneficial effects on lung function and respiratory symptoms in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Mental Health and Mood Improvement.
Our modern homes and offices seal out negative ions. Experts state that computer terminals, fluorescent lighting, forced air ventilation systems, and modern building materials generate an overabundance of positive ions.
According to experts, balancing the ionization in your workplace and home can help combat the ill feelings associated with stressful lifestyles.
The world’s most tranquil and refreshing regions are loaded with billions of negative ions. The air near waterfalls, mountains, beaches and forests is among those places where ionization levels are in complete and natural balance. After a lightning storm, most of us feel invigorated and refreshed. This is because (some say) the electrical storm has generated trillions of tranquilizing negative ions that ease tension and leave us full of energy.
Studies have shown significant improvement in health effects due to ions in the air we breathe:
Studies have shown benefits of negative ions:
1. Terman, M., Terman, J. S., & Ross, D. C. (1998). A controlled trial of timed bright light and negative air ionization for treatment of winter depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 55(10), 875-882. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9783557/
This study investigated the effects of bright light and negative air ionization on individuals with winter depression (seasonal affective disorder, or SAD). The participants were assigned to four different treatment conditions: bright light, negative ions, a combination of both, and a placebo control. The results showed that the combination of bright light and negative ions was the most effective treatment for reducing symptoms of depression, compared to the other conditions.
2. Charry, J. M., et al. (2003). Seasonal variation in suicide in Colombia. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 38(5), 206-212.
This study explored the relationship between seasonal variation and suicide rates in Colombia. The authors hypothesized that negative ions generated by waterfalls might have a positive impact on mental health. The results showed that there was a lower incidence of suicide during the rainy season, which is associated with increased negative air ionization due to waterfalls and rain.
3. Kozaki, T., et al. (2013). Effects of short-term exposure to a negatively charged air ion on biological functions in humans: A preliminary study. Journal of Medical Investigation, 60(1.2), 68-72.
This study examined the short-term effects of exposure to negative air ions on mood and cognitive function in healthy participants. The results showed that negative ions had a positive effect on mood, reducing tension and anxiety and improving subjective well-being.
4. Iskra-Golec, I., et al. (2012). Morningness-eveningness and sleep among employees working on three shifts at the same plant: A prospective study. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 25(4), 383-392.
This study investigated the relationship between morningness-eveningness (chronotype) and mood among shift workers. The results indicated that evening types, who are known to have worse mood in the morning, experienced improved mood during the night shift. The authors suggested that this improvement might be related to increased negative ionization during the night.
A large number of older studies have also shown the benefits of negative ions:
- Scientists at the University of California grew barley, oats lettuce and peas in an atmosphere drastically reduced in ionization and found that growth was stunted and the plants diseased. The same experiment, in air with more than double the natural number of negative ions produced accelerated growth.
- In Russia, scientists tried to raise small animals – mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits – in air with no ions at all. They all died within a few days.
- Dr Felix Sulman, head of the Applied Pharmacology department at Jerusalem University, conducted experiments with positive and negative ions on “normal” people (his subjects were two groups of men and women between twenty and sixty-five).When left for about an hour in a room that contained an overdose of positive ions they became irritable and fatigued. Yet the same people confined for the same period of time, in air containing an overdose of negative ions showed a pattern of brainwaves that suggested increased alertness and relaxation. He tested their alertness and work capacity by various means and all of them scored significantly higher during, and immediately after, exposure to a high level of negative ions than in “normal” air.
- Dr Sulman also undertook a study of “weather sensitive” volunteers and showed that, during the time of the Sharav winds, their bodies would produce up to ten times their normal level of serotonin – a hormone associated with stress. He found that, in effect, they were being poisoned by their own serotonin, causing migraines, hot flushes, irritability, pains around the heart, difficulty in breathing and a worsening of bronchial complaints, anxiety and irrational tension. Also, a slowing of reactions was observed. Interestingly, it was discovered that in many people, the body’s initial respond to positive ions is to produce adrenaline and noradrenaline – the “fight or flight” hormones – which produces short-term euphoria but eventually leads to a condition of exhaustion. (It is this condition that is thought to affect insects and animals into restless activity as the positive ions build up before a storm.) The research also showed that exposure to positive ions can trigger an over-production of histamine, which most people will immediately recognize as the body chemical that aggravates allergies. Statistically it was found that 25% of the population are quite strongly affected by levels of ions in the air. Of the remainder, 50% are affected considerably, although 25% do not appear sensitive at all. Subnan F G, Levy D, Pfeifer Y, Superstiue E & Tal E. Air-ionometry of hot, dry desert winds (sharav) and treatment with air ions of weather-sensitive subjects. Int.J.Biometeor. 4:101-10, 1963
- A great deal of research was also carried out by Dr. Albert Krueger in California – One of his first discoveries was that a surprisingly small amount of negative ions could kill and take out of the air, the types of bacteria that cause colds, influenza and respiratory infections. He then went on to keep large groups of mice in various concentrations of ions, some positive, some negative and some in normal balance. In 1960 a scientific paper was published on the results. The conclusions were almost identical to those of Dr. Sulman. An excess of positive ions led to overproduction of serotonin which initially created hyperactivity, leading to exhaustion, anxiety and depression. He also found that an excess of negative ions appeared to have a calming effect, and a reducing of serotonin levels in the brain. (Negative ions were actually substituted for a pharmaceutical tranquilizer on one occasion – with identical results). The series of experiments were then extended to include rats, guinea pigs and rabbits as well as insects and plants. The results consistently supported the original findings. On one occasion, mice were kept in a sealed container until the oxygen was almost used up and they were on the verge of suffocation. The remaining air was negatively ionized – and the mice revived! Krueger A P & Sfgel S. Ions in the air. Human Nature 1(7):46-52, July 1978.
- In a major 16-week trial conducted by Surrey University at the Norwich Union Insurance Group’s headquarters, eight negative ion generators were fitted in the computer and data preparation section, the typing area and the motor underwriting department. Before the tests got under way, the University team spent a month compiling incidence rates of complaints of sickness and headaches. The experiments were “double- blind”-so that neither the staff nor the researchers knew whether the ionizers were on or off at any given time. The most dramatic results were in the air-conditioned areas, the incidence of headaches in the computer room being reduced by 78 per cent during the midnight to 08.30 shift. Norwich Union was sufficiently convinced to decide to keep the ionizers, and order another ten ceiling-mounted models, giving them 20,000 sq ft of ionized office space.
Part of Surrey University’s experiments concerned concentration ability and the studies showed that negative ionization could improve task performance by as much as 28 per cent. In general, the more difficult the task, the more improvement could be accomplished by negative ions.
- At the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate Hospital and at Northeastern and Frankford hospitals in Philadelphia. Dr. Kornblueh and his associates administered negative ion treatments to hundreds of patients suffering from hay fever or bronchial asthma. Of the total, 63 percent experienced partial to total relief.
- Kornblueh, Dr. J.R. Minehart, Northeastern’s chief surgeon, and his associate Dr. T.A. David tried negative ions in relief of deep, post-operative pain. During an eight-month test period they exposed 138 patients to negative ions on the first and second days after surgery. Dr. Kornblueh announced the results at a London congress of bioclimatologists: In 79 cases (57 per-cent of the total), negative ions eliminated or drastically reduced pain.
- Experiments by Dr. Albert P. Krueger and Dr. Richard F Smith at the University of California have shown how ionization affects those sensitive to air-borne allergens: Our bronchial tubes and trachea, or windpipe, are lined with tiny hair filaments called cilia. The cilia normally maintain a whip-like motion of about 900 beats a minute. Together with mucus, they keep our air passages free of dust and pollen. Krueger and Smith exposed tracheal tissue to negative ions and found the ciliary beat was speeded up to 12OO a minute and that mucus flow was increased. Doses of positive ions produced the opposite effect: The ciliary beat slowed to 6OO a minute or less and the flow of mucus dropped.
Dr’s Krueger and Smith also discovered that cigarette smoke slows down the cilia, impairing their ability to clear foreign, and possibly carcinogenic (cancer-inducing), substances from the lungs. While positive ions worsened this condition, negative ions were found to reverse the effects of the smoke