Dealing with Unwanted or Unpopular Publicity

Seven tips - click HERE

We call our basic platform "The Rock."

Ozone occurs naturally in healthy outdoor environments. We know this and no expert in the world will say it is dangerous to breathe the air at Waikiki Beach or at the base of Mount Rushmore. Measurements have shown the typical outdoor ozone levels to be .02 to .04 parts per million. Sometimes a person with a good nose can smell the ozone. Mostly, however, we simply call the air "fresh" and "fantastic." We had a day like that yesterday here in Orlando and today is fantastic, too!

Lacking the sunlight effect, indoor air tends to be depleted of ozone (unless a lot of sunshine is beaming through windows) ... so twenty years ago our company started selling a small electronic device that would bring the indoor levels up to a par with what is normal in the mountains. Ions, another healthy technology, was added to the process. He launched his company as Alpine Air Products.

More recently, we adopted a technology that was developed for NASA. Our air purifiers are "Space Certified," a designation granted to us by the Space Foundation.

The article that follows is typical of what we see. It refers to "potentially harmful ozone" and it could just as well refer to "potentially harmful electricity" or "potentially harmful water." Millions of people have died from too much water, but we are unaware of a single case where a person died from ozone. Logically, it is clear that the "potential" harm from water is far greater than the "potential" harm from ozone. The EPA and OSHA have established ozone safety levels. We agree and comply 100% with their advice.

When ozone gets beyond the safety levels, it gets offensive and people avoid it. I have several air purifiers operating in my home, but I wouldn't be happy if the ozone levels got higher than .04. Why? Because my nose and lungs would tell me that's more than I want. We advise our customers to set their units well below the levels that would typically be considered bothersome.

We also have technologies that use the space-type technologies and generate only trace amounts of ozone. I have an Everest unit in secretary's office. Also, I can turn my Fresh Air unit to a mode that also limits ozone production to a trace.

Some of our units (including Fresh Air) allow the customer to control his ozone all the way from zero up to a level that can be used to clean an environment when the room or building is empty. An automatic reset device on our Fresh Air model allows the unit to run on high for 2, 4, 6 or 8 hours and then reset to the setting of choice.

The 2006 article talks about a state sponsored survey that will ask 1,800 homeowners how they like their air purifiers. I hope they do that! Our marketing technique is to let customers decide in advance, and our level of customer satisfaction is extremely high.

The article says that not all the machines are harmful. That's good to see.

The article quoted Dr. James Marsden from Kansas State University, one of two institutions that is doing efficacy tests for EcoQuest (with dramatic results -- the studies have been peer reviewed and will be published in at least two scientific journals). Marsden's comments: "Even with the older machines, the [ozone] levels are very low. No one is selling products with dangerous levels of ozone."

The 2006 article was triggered by a customer who used a Fresh Air for eight months. Although her credit card bounced, she thought the machine made a difference. Time went by and the customer refused to return her unit; so the dealer filed a complaint with the small claims court. A judge decided that the customer owed 50% for the time that had been used. The dealer got her used unit back but never received the judgment. The customer complained and now there's an article to deal with.

The article's final sentence quotes an engineering professor from the University of Texas, "Ozone is a harmful gas, period. There is no debate about ozone."

I suppose this engineer has never taken his family to the Padre Island National Seashore between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, Texas. It's a beautiful natural place and the ozone level is .04 parts per million almost every day of the year. Sometimes it is a little higher, sometimes a little less. I've been there many times.

If you have dealers or customers who are uncomfortable with the article shown below, send them this link and let them read our answer. Most people will be satisfied.

Sincerely,

Bob Giddens

Ozone emissions spur calls for survey

08:22 AM PST on Friday, March 3, 2006

by DAVID DANELSKI / The Press-Enterprise

California's air-quality regulators want to know how many people rely on air purifiers that actually pollute the indoor atmosphere with potentially harmful ozone.
The state Air Resources Board has commissioned UC Berkeley researchers to survey 1,800 households and estimate how many have the ozone-producing machines and how often they're used.

The goal is to determine how big a health risk consumers face from the machines' indoor air pollution.

The air purifiers still are aggressively marketed in Southern California, more than a year after the air board issued a public warning and asked the state attorney general's office to investigate for potential consumer fraud.

Not all the machines are harmful. However, additional research affirmed earlier studies that found some machines not only fail to effectively clean the air, but they produce harmful ozone gas that can worsen asthma, deaden the sense of smell and damage the lungs.

"We don't have second- or third-stage smog alerts anymore, but now you make one in your home," said Jerry Martin, an air board spokesman.

Martin said the agency doesn't have the authority to ban or otherwise crack down on the machines.

Representatives of one manufacturer said the air purifiers are safe and effective. The machines emit ozone but not enough to be harmful, they say.

Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge, a member of the air board's governing body, said he thinks that enough research has been done to support the creation of state laws to regulate the machines.

UC Berkeley's telephone survey will ask residents whether they use an air purifier, which model they use, why they use one and how often. The researchers also will try to determine what else the state can do to evaluate the potential health risks from the machines. Results of the $100,000 survey are expected late this year.

A Researcher's Findings

Air-pollution officials have battled outdoor ozone, a byproduct of vehicle and factory emissions, for decades.

Ozone is an invisible gas that can inflame the lungs and bodily tissues. It causes headaches, nausea and runny noses and can aggravate conditions like asthma enough to send people to hospitals.

No one should be making the stuff in their homes, state officials said last year.

But tests continue to find that many air purifiers now on the market do just that.

Some of the most recent tests were done by Jerry Siegel, an engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who presented his results at an indoor-air conference in Beijing, China, in September.

Siegel went into his research believing that many of the machines might not be effective air cleaners but probably weren't harmful, he said in a telephone interview. After testing 10 models, he found that some emitted seriously harmful levels of ozone.

"They should never be used in an occupied building," he said.
Machines that used ion-exchange technologies emitted much less ozone but enough to raise health concerns, he said.
Only machines with high-efficiency particle filters, known as HEPA filters, emitted no ozone and resulted in significantly cleaner air, Siegel said.

Machines that deliberately produced ozone or relied on particle-ionizing technologies were ineffective air cleaners, he said. Such machines removed only a negligible amount of smoke from burning incense in a laboratory air chamber, he said.

"They are emitting a dangerous gas and not removing many particles from the air," Siegel said.

Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office, said the agency is conducting a review to look for possible violations of laws that protect buyers from unfair business practices and false advertising. The office hasn't initiated a full-scale investigation, he said.

Endorsed by Dr. Laura

In its warning last year, the air board listed several ozone-generating machines to avoid, including the Living Air and Fresh Air models made by Greeneville, Tenn.-based EcoQuest International.

Radio talk-show personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger endorsed the Fresh Air model last month during her call-in advice show on KFI radio, saying she has one of the machines in her office.
Company representatives defend the air purifiers.

A paid science adviser said by telephone that recent models use new technology and generate less ozone than older models. None of the machines, however, emits enough ozone to be harmful, said James L. Marsden, a food-science professor at Kansas State University.

"Even with the older machines, the levels are very low," Marsden said. "No one is selling products with dangerous levels of ozone."

Mary Cox, 82, of Temecula, said she was hooked by a Fresh Air sales pitch when Schlessinger endorsed the machine on the radio.

She got a free trial from Santa Barbara-based dealer Michelle Giddens. Cox hoped the machine would give her relief from her allergies.

Cox said the machine fogged up her home.

"It had this smell to it, and it wasn't doing anything for me," said Cox, a retired Navy officer.

When she tried to return it, Giddens wouldn't take the delivery, Cox said.

Giddens said Cox gave her a bad credit-card number and never intended to pay the $800. She took Cox to small-claims court and got a $400 judgment and the machine back.

Giddens acknowledged that the Fresh Air model emits ozone. "If you get the ozone at the right levels, it's perfectly safe," she said.

Siegel, the indoor-air expert, strongly disagrees.

Ozone is a harmful gas, period, he said. "There is no debate about ozone."

See this link: http://www.chippynews.com/letters_about_ozone.htm