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Comment by bawolff | Hacker News Reader

Ozone is toxic to humans. You don't want too much because you will literally die.

I am highly doubtful that ozone in safe concentrations will do anything. Even at unsafe but not immediately threatening concentrations it probably does nothing.

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My parents had an ozone-producing air purifier when I was a child. I liked the smell, and I thought the ozone was healthy (nobody ever told me otherwise!), so I had the habit of turning the ozone knob all the way up, sticking my face in front of it, and taking deep breaths.

It didn't cause any health issues as far as I know, but in retrospect, I really wish regulators and/or my parents would have prevented that from happening.

I don't know about the US, but in the EU regulators DID step in and limited amount of ozone that can be produced by consumer devices to relatively safe levels. It will smell like thunderstorm but shouldn't be too toxic.

According to wikipedia, california limits to 0.05 ppm and the more sensitive people start to smell it at 0.1ppm.

So if you can smell it, that's probably not great.

I don't think you can smell ozone - it's rather noxious. I think what you can smell as "thunderstorm" is the air cleaned a bit by ozone and the process of ionization (which traps some bigger particles).

It largely gets captured in the mucus barrier in the lungs, but people with COPD or asthma also tend to have poor barrier function (Both mucus and lung liner) so it leaks into the blood stream easier.

I did the same thing! I'm still fond of that smell!

If you can smell it, you're using too much (unless you're actually doing a "fumigation" where you turn it on for a set time, leave the room and close the door.)

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