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Dear Consumers:
Ozone
exposure is
questioned from time to time. We have chosen half a dozen very pristine
places to talk about because these illustrations provides a
logic-based and quite empirical answer. Ozone is one of
those everyday realities —like
electricity, fire, humidity, and talkative people—that
is desirable and useful in low amounts but dangerous or
annoying in excessive amounts. |
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Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, one of the most famous, most
visited beaches in the world. Measure the ozone at noon on a
sunny day. It will be .03 or .04 part per million, sometimes
higher! The air smells fantastic and is considered to be
very healthful.
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Padre Island National Seashore, a 100-mile long beach and
dune region near Corpus Christi, Texas. Each day’s ozone
level will be determined by the brightness of that day’s
sunshine. On an overcast day it might be .02 ppm. It will be
.04 ppm on a clear day. |
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The viewing platform at Mount Rushmore
National Monument, Rapid City, South Dakota. You guessed
it—.04 ppm on a sunny day. That is considered a natural,
healthy ozone level for fresh, outdoor air. |
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Glacier National Park, Montana (connects at the Montana
border to Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta,
Canada). Wonderful, refreshing air
every day… and what does it contain?
You guessed it… .04 ppm of ozone.
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Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Here’s another
fresh and wonderful place. We have a lot of beautiful places
in America. All of these places have ozone-freshened air
every day. |
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The Grand Canyon, Arizona—yet another example of God’s glory
and nature’s perfection.
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These places
are known for fabulous vistas and clean, healthy air. The
summer air in Arizona is hot and dry. Around the beaches it
tends to be humid and windy. In northern Montana and
southern Alberta the air is crisp. All of these fantastic
places have natural O3
levels that go up in the bright daytime hours and down at
night.
Ozone is
created by the UV component of sunlight as the sun shines
through our atmosphere (21%
oxygen, less than one ten-thousandth of a percent is ozone).
This is basic high school science.
Indoors (in
the absence of sunlight)
the O3
levels dip to zero unless air is vented in through
open windows or an air exchange system. A primary solution
for Sick Buildings is to vent in outside air (which
contains ozone in the daytime).
Doesn’t that tell you loudly and clearly that ozone is okay?
Our solution is
to reconstitute indoor air electronically by
adding low levels of ozone and high levels of ionization to
the air. We call this Air Purification. The result is
similar to venting in outside
air (but
without the dust/pollution/odors!). This
concept is very different from filtration.
Common
sense
and the user's manual both tell users not to run the unit on
an unnaturally high setting.
Residential and
business customers who use purifiers don't want
high levels of O3.
No one does. It's just a matter of making indoor air fresh
like outdoor air...with a side benefit of removing odors and
smoke. Even non-smokers occasionally burn food or warm up
the atmosphere of their home with a fireplace, and visitors
sometimes come in with smoke on their clothing.
One Vollara
user says, "My neighbor and his little girls came to my door
to sell us some Christmas wrapping paper. He sniffed the air
and said, 'Your house smells great!' The UPS man also said
my house has a great freshness to it. My carpenters and my
occasional housekeeper like my air purifiers. If I didn't have an air
purifier, my house would smell like other people's houses.
There would be hints of mold, food, sweat, smoke (we
don't smoke but some homes have a lot of smoke odors), pets, and
what have you."
This gentleman writes: "My grandson visits and sleeps
here. His mother and I are always confident that the air is
fresh. Cody doesn't need to visit me to get fresh air. His
mother has operated two air purifiers in her home since the
day he came home from the hospital."
Will you
occasionally
hear
some negative press about air purifiers that offer an ozone
option? Yes. Various political entities, especially in California, have
spoken out against ozone ( their
point of view comes from the famous LA smog problem; ozone gets
blamed for what is really an unburned hydrocarbon and
geographical [basin with high population surrounded by
mountains] issue).
Negative press scares some
people but bolsters the resolve
of others who know the benefits they've seen in their homes.
A dozen years ago the airwaves were full of stories that
cell phones would cause brain cancer. Well, we haven't all
died from brain cancer. Those reports simply were not true.
Some Vollara
units do not produce ozone and are certified for residential
use in California. Others are ozone-adjustable. Each
customer makes up his own mind based on the circumstances
within his own home or building. A home with strong odors
would want a little ozone because it's so highly
effective for controlling odors. A home with open windows
might prefer to keep the ozone control "off" or "normal."
We support solid science and common sense. Studies from two
major universities have helped to document and quantify the
benefits of our products.
Good luck to
all,
Bob Giddens
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Nowhere can you breathe cleaner or fresher air...
...Part 2, for Leaders
Click
HERE
to download the customer's letter in WORD format. |
Vollara
distributors are sometimes asked about articles and other
public
commentary. One quote from USA TODAY said: "Popular and expensive
ionizing air cleaners—a staple of late-night
infomercials—could expose users to lung-damaging
levels of ozone, and they do a poor job of actually
cleaning the air, according to a study in the May
issue of Consumer Reports."
Ozone has been
called
bad for decades. This kept most
companies from adding ozone to their air systems.
Their failure to do this allowed our company to lead
the market in this class of products. Properly
adjusted ozone is a wonderful feature
of our technology. There is no reason for concern
because (a) the levels we advocate are similar to
healthy outdoor air and (b) millions of people have lived with this
technology for years with no problems.
Articles that pop up from time to time—and the
commentary that follows—must
be endured.
This is the way of life and business.
We become stronger by overcoming obstacles
and, in the long run, we even benefit from having
our weaker clients and dealers weeded out. The Law
of Survival is at play. The strong will become stronger for having struggled.
We have technologies that come directly out of the Space
Age (Radiant Catalytic Ionization,
Photo-hydro Ionization, hydroxyl generation—all
tied to UV light effects).
These technologies are not being challenged. We give
our users the option to turn their ozone up, down
or off. A family or business can get the cleanest,
safest, and healthiest indoor air than by adding our
technologies to their homes and buildings.
We have
peer-reviewed studies from two
universities. These studies address individual
issues such as mold control, bacteria kill
rates, and particulate control. They also
address overall indoor effectiveness. We know
our technologies work because of testing,
customer satisfaction and personal knowledge.
Build your business.
Build your career.
Sincerely and enthusiastically,
Satisfied user of Vollara air technologies!
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Distributors:
Since
October 18, 2010, all portable air cleaning device
offered for sale in California have had to be certified by
the California Air Resources Board (CARB) as
emitting no more than 0.050 parts per million of
ozone. As explained below, certain labeling
requirements also apply.
Even before that deadline,
Vollara already manufactured
complying, certified
products.
The regulation is the result of
concerns about persons being exposed to ozone, a
potentially harmful air pollutant. The CARB
regulation applies to any person who manufactures,
sells, supplies, offers for sale, or introduces into
commerce in California any indoor air cleaning
device used or intended for use in occupied spaces.
As a company that sells air cleaning devices,
Vollara complies fully with this regulation. A copy of the complete
regulation is available at
www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2007/iacd07/finalreg07.pdf.
In
summary, portable air cleaners used or intended for
use in occupied spaces must be: (1) tested by a
Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory for ozone
emissions and electrical safety under ANSI/UL
Standard 867 (or,
for "mechanical filtration only" devices, tested for
electrical safety under ANSI/UL Standard 507);
(2) certified by CARB; and (3) labeled on the
product packaging. Labels for non-medical devices (those
for which no health claims are made)
must read: "This air cleaner complies with the
federal ozone emissions limit. CARB certified."
Medical devices (those
for which health claims are made)
must use labeling required by the federal Food and
Drug Administration, and include "CARB certified" in
the label. For air cleaners manufactured prior to
April 1, 2011, the label may be an adhesive sticker.
Some
air cleaning devices are exempt from the regulation.
These include indoor air cleaning devices used for
certain defined industrial uses (e.g.
water purification; see section 94801(a)(15) of the
enclosed regulation for a list of exempt industrial
uses)
and also in-duct systems where the air cleaner is
designed, marketed and used solely as a physically
integrated part of a central heating, air
conditioning, or ventilating system. Industrial use
devices must be purchased solely through an
industrial supply outlet or business and must be
labeled as "Solely for industrial use. Potential
health hazard: emits ozone." Non-industrial indoor
air cleaners that are not certified and are sold on
the Internet or by catalog must include the
following advisory, displayed prominently: "Does not
meet California requirements; cannot be shipped to
California."
Further information is available from the CARB web
site at
www.arb.ca.gov/research/indoor/aircleaners/aircleaners.htm.
As
an air cleaner manufacturer, Vollara is required to
provide the CARB with the names and contact
information of all of our known distributors,
retailers and sellers. Failure to do so may result
in rejection or revocation of our certification.
However, as provided in the regulation, we can
request that the contact information submitted be
kept confidential as specified in state regulations
and law.
Vollara distributors are
encouraged to review the information found at the
above-referenced links so that you are familiar with
the specific requirements of the regulation that may
affect you. If you have questions about the
regulation and our specific plans for meeting it
that are not answered by the information above and
in the enclosed document, please contact our
Customer Service Department at
1-800-989-2299. For further information about the
regulation, you may also call Jim Behrmann of the
CARB at 916-322-8278
(jbehrman@arb.ca.gov).
Thank you for your attention to this information.
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