Various industrial hygienists have expressed opinions that using ozone by restoration contractors is unsafe and shouldn’t be used. The situation is that many fireplace and smoke restoration firms use ozone to take away odors, despite the fact that they’ve been warned about these issues in their very own commerce journal.
A 2022 article revealed by Restoration & Remediation Magazine, Using Ozone in Fire Restoration: Is It a Friend or a Foe?, states:
Are There Health Risks Associated With Using Ozone?
Most of my colleagues within the restoration trade really feel that ozone is pure to our surroundings and comparatively innocent. To illustrate this, listed here are some feedback made by a producer of ozone turbines: ‘Ozone is a highly effective natural sterilizer that can inactivate practically any organic contaminant on contact. As it is a highly reactive gas, ozone continually reverts back to its most stable form by releasing one of its atoms to turn back into oxygen (from O3 to O2). As ozone is a gas composed entirely of oxygen, it leaves no chemical residue whatsoever. The only by-product remaining is fresh, clean air.’
That sounds fairly superb, proper? Let’s take a more in-depth look and see what scientists and authorities businesses should say about ozone.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety experiences that: ‘Even very low concentrations of ozone can be harmful to the upper respiratory tract and the lungs. The severity of injury depends on both the concentration of ozone and the duration of exposure. Severe and permanent lung injury or death could result from even a very short-term exposure to relatively low concentrations.’
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that ozone publicity may be particularly hazardous for those who have respiratory illnesses corresponding to bronchial asthma and COPD. People with bronchial asthma are probably affected by ozone in two methods: (1) They is perhaps extra delicate to ozone than different individuals, and expertise lung operate adjustments and respiratory signs at decrease concentrations or with higher magnitude; and (2) the harm, irritation and elevated airway reactivity induced by ozone publicity could worsen an individual’s underlying bronchial asthma.
The National Institutes of Health has recognized the next well being results related to ozone publicity:
- Nervous system disturbances: Nervous system results aside from narcosis
- Respiratory results aside from irritation: Cumulative lung harm
- Respiratory results: Acute lung harm/edema or different
- Irritation: Eyes, nostril, throat, pores and skin
The article concludes with the next warning:
If you’re going to use ozone turbines in indoor environments, take the required precautions to guard staff and occupants. Consider the next:
- Provide occupants and staff with a security information sheet on ozone so everyone seems to be knowledgeable.
- Remove or defend any gadgets or supplies which may be adversely affected by ozone publicity.
- Set up correct environmental controls and place warning indicators across the space the place ozone might be used.
- Provide staff with correct PPE and keep away from working in areas the place ozone is being generated.
- When the ozone remedy is full, totally ventilate the world earlier than permitting staff to reenter.
Conduct air sampling after ozone use to confirm that ozone ranges are secure and that no poisonous chemical substances or byproducts stay.
The actual query is whether or not fireplace and smoke restoration firms must be doing this in any respect. The science means that the degrees of ozone wanted to successfully take away odors creates an unsafe construction throughout and after the method is accomplished.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency raised this level by stating in a examine, Ozone Generators which can be Sold as Air Cleaners:
Are Ozone Generators Effective in Controlling Indoor Air Pollution?
Available scientific proof exhibits that at concentrations that don’t exceed public well being requirements, ozone has little potential to take away indoor air contaminants.
Some producers or distributors recommend that ozone will render virtually each chemical contaminant innocent by producing a chemical response whose solely by-products are carbon dioxide, oxygen and water. This is deceptive.
- First, a evaluate of scientific analysis exhibits that, for lots of the chemical substances generally present in indoor environments, the response course of with ozone could take months or years (Boeniger, 1995). For all sensible functions, ozone doesn’t react in any respect with such chemical substances. And opposite to particular claims by some distributors, ozone turbines will not be efficient in eradicating carbon monoxide (Salls, 1927; Shaughnessy et al., 1994) or formaldehyde (Esswein and Boeniger, 1994).
- Second, for lots of the chemical substances with which ozone does readily react, the response can type quite a lot of dangerous or irritating by-products (Weschler et al., 1992a, 1992b, 1996; Zhang and Lioy, 1994). For instance, in a laboratory experiment that combined ozone with chemical substances from new carpet, ozone lowered many of those chemical substances, together with these which may produce new carpet odor. However, within the course of, the response produced quite a lot of aldehydes, and the full focus of natural chemical substances within the air elevated somewhat than decreased after the introduction of ozone (Weschler, et. al., 1992b). In addition to aldehydes, ozone may additionally enhance indoor concentrations of formic acid (Zhang and Lioy, 1994), each of which may irritate the lungs if produced in ample quantities. Some of the potential by-products produced by ozone’s reactions with different chemical substances are themselves very reactive and able to producing irritating and corrosive by-products (Weschler and Shields, 1996, 1997a, 1997b). Given the complexity of the chemical reactions that happen, further analysis is required to extra utterly perceive the complicated interactions of indoor chemical substances within the presence of ozone.
- Third, ozone doesn’t take away particles (e.g., mud and pollen) from the air, together with the particles that trigger most allergy symptoms. However, some ozone turbines are manufactured with an ‘ion generator’ or ‘ionizer’ in the identical unit. An ionizer is a tool that disperses negatively (and/or positively) charged ions into the air. These ions connect to particles within the air giving them a unfavorable (or optimistic) cost in order that the particles could connect to close by surfaces corresponding to partitions or furnishings, or connect to at least one one other and settle out of the air. In latest experiments, ionizers have been discovered to be much less efficient in eradicating particles of mud, tobacco smoke, pollen or fungal spores than both excessive effectivity particle filters or electrostatic precipitators. (Shaughnessy et al., 1994; Pierce, et al., 1996). However, it’s obvious from different experiments that the effectiveness of particle air cleaners, together with electrostatic precipitators, ion turbines, or pleated filters varies extensively (U.S. EPA, 1995).
There is proof to indicate that at concentrations that don’t exceed public well being requirements, ozone is just not efficient at eradicating many odor-causing chemical substances.
The backside line is that many within the fireplace and smoke remediation trade are utilizing these machines that use ozone to take away the smoke odor. The producers promoting these ozone machines need to hold promoting them. The pattern is that industrial hygienists are stating opinions that we should always cease utilizing this methodology as a result of it’s not secure and citing to scientific papers for proof of their opinions.
Where are the scientific papers supporting smoke removing by these ozone machines is secure? I couldn’t discover them.
Thought For The Day
It takes management to enhance security.
—Jackie Stewart