Types of Pollutants / Particles Removed from Air

Facts About Negative Ions

• Approved by the U.S. FDA (Food & Drug Admin.) as an approved allergy treatment.
• Ionization is mandatory in many European and Russian Hospitals.
• 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.

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. Surround Air Ionizers recreate them with electrodes ("needlepoints") to electrically produce negative ions. This method produces a density (about 1,000,000/cm3) that is comparable to the world's largest waterfalls, such as Niagara Falls, which offers one of the healthiest environments in the world. (Effects of Negative Ions)

Surround Air Ionizers do not cause any of the drawbacks of typical needlepoint ionizers though. As a result, there is no "black wall" effect, erosion or wearing down of the electrodes, or any other "side effects".