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Comment by bob1029 | Hacker News Reader

I've ran an ozone generator in a house for multiple days, but I went into it with the expectation that it would be uninhabitable for a period of time afterward.

Ozone won't stick around for very long. It is extremely reactive. With windows / doors open and vent fans running it will be cleared out in maybe a few hours max. The first few minutes is definitely overpowering though. You need to have a plan to turn the machine off and ventilate the building that doesn't involve walking through it for longer than you can hold your breath.

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I just wore a half face respirator with an activated carbon filter (3M 7503 + 6001 + something over that for particulates, probably 2297). Quality respirators seem like simple table stakes for doing a lot of things these days. It was an off label use of the organic vapor cartridge but it worked fine (it also worked fine for cleaning with ammonia in deep cabinets). I also probably plugged the O3 generator into an extension cord which I could unplug without going in the room, the mask was just to go in and open the windows some time afterwards. It seems like, as with anything, the important part is to know the technicals of what something does and create an overall plan.

I’ve used respirators through prior lab work and be warned the ammonia grade and organic solvent grades are distinct filter packing.

Sorry, that's what I meant to imply about off label use. I should have stated it explicitly.

Household cleaning one would otherwise moderate their exposure "by smell", so I'm comfortable trusting my sense of smell through an activated charcoal filter even though it's not a listed use, is past expiration, etc.

For things (eg painting with isocyanates), I follow the directions religiously.

Holding your breath won‘t save you, it damages the eyes as well.

> It is extremely reactive.

It's two oxygen atoms with 1.5 covalent bonds each and another one in the middle with three!

If atmospheric oxygen is ‘burning’, it’s ‘nuclear hellfire’.

What surprises me about the linked reddit thread is that a chemist was surprised that pumping a bunch of a highly reactive oxygen species into a pile of random chemicals would…. produce a bunch of highly reactive random chemicals in return?

Ozone doesn’t make the soup of random elements disappear, it just oxidizes/reacts with them! Which eliminates odors if they’re trace volatiles (like most odors), but breaks a lot of other things down into even crazier chemicals - and if trapped in an enclosed space, can be bad.

Also, here is a cool video from a guy making liquid ozone [https://youtu.be/9EVrIcaVrqM?si=SyXBieoolcMntcaW]

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