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Ionizers make small particles plate-out on surfaces instead of floating in the air. It makes the air itself cleaner to breathe etc, but I suppose it could make surfaces dirtier than they otherwise would be with these especially fine particles. Usually an air purifier with ionizer will have the ionization at the filter outlet, so only the very smallest particles are affected by this process.

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But if the ionizer can make particles stick to surfaces, wouldn't that mean it can also make them stick to the lungs? Because, in that case it's not so clear it's a win is it?

the particles stick via static electricity, which doesn't work well on wet surfaces like your lungs. the bigger issue is that ionizers can mix with VOCs from cleaning products and generate ozone and formaldehyde as byproducts - i suspect this combination made me really sick at one point because im allergic to formaldehyde

The particles affected by the ionizer are already floating in the air that is being inhaled into the lungs. For the sake of this discussion (i.e. disregarding accidental generation of ozone), wouldn't it be better if those particles are taken out of the air, stuck to surfaces, so they're no longer being inhaled?

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