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Air Ionization : an introduction
An adult person eats 3kg food and breathes 15kg "air" per day The "Air Quality" is consequently essential for our health!
Air ions are consequently essential for our life, even in low quantities, like vitamins and oligoelements !
Our sun showers our planet with Positive Air Ions (PAIs) of hydrogen and our earth responds to the bombardment of PAIs by producing Negative Air Ions (NAIs) of oxygen through the breaking down of naturally occurring radium in the earth crust which is converted into radon gas. This natural radiation causes oxygen negative ions to form. The natural balance between PAIs and NAIs is around 5 PAIs for 4 NAIs.
Lightning, rolling surf, cosmic rays, waterfalls, UV light and even friction of pine needles create also air ions.
Already in 1930, Dessauer discovered that NAIs positively influence our health. In 1940, Tchijevski, a Russian researcher, proved that completely deionised air quickly leads to death. Since then, thousands of studies have been published by universities and medical research centres throughout the world on the benefits of air ionisation on human health.
They all came to the conclusion that air ions are essential for “cleaning the air” and for “improving our health”. Air ions can indeed electrically charge the particular aerocontaminants that consequently aggregate and sediment on grounded surfaces. They can also oxidize volatile molecules, deodorising the atmosphere. NAIs have been proven to help our body to re-balance, to activate and strengthen some essential functions, like the body oxygenation and the immune system, to regulate some essential mechanisms, like the production of neuro-hormones and the blood circulation and to improve our psychological health. NAIs are consequently as important as vitamins and oligo-elements, even in low concentrations, and therefore, they are considered as “the vitamins of the air”!
The higher their concentration in the air, the cleaner is the air and the higher is the oxygen concentration in our body. Nowadays, only nearby water falls and the see, in mountains and in forest, high ion concentrations can be found (see table). Nearby the “Iguaçú” waterfalls in Argentina, the highest air ion concentration in the world has been found, around 8 millions NAIs/cm3. Studies have proven that people living in those ion rich areas are rarely sick and are in good health condition. On the other side, people living in polluted areas, deprived in NAIs, are more exposed to physical and psychological diseases.
The ion concentration has the following influence on human health: < 50 ions/cm3 biological & physiological troubles > 1.000 ions/cm3 min. concentration for good human health > 5.000 ions/cm3 improvement of body resistance; micro-organisms abatement and infection prevention
Human beings have evolved in an ion rich environment, essential for their health. But since the industrial revolution, air pollution and the use of concrete to build cities have drastically reduce the air ion concentration in cities and industrial areas. Particulate materials, mainly positively charged, quickly neutralize the healthy NAIs and in cities, where the ground is mainly covered with concrete, the NAIs cannot come out the ground.
Studies have concluded that we spend 80-90% of our time indoor. In our indoor environment, synthetic materials, electrical equipments, like computers and TV, cigarette smoke and air conditioning systems also quickly neutralise the NAIs. 50% of the persons regularly working with computers are suffering of headache, memory trouble and concentration problem. The depletion of NAIs in the air not only weakens our body defence but also drastically reduce the air quality.
Only the “small” NAIs, emitted at a distance of maximum 2m from the source, are ingestible by our respiratory system and are consequently biologically active. Further than 2m, the small air ions starts building “medium” and after “large” ions by binding other molecules and even particulate materials. These ions are essential for “cleaning the air”, by charging all the matters suspended in the air (particles, micro-organisms, viruses & allergens), making them aggregate and sediment. Air ions even have a killing effects on micro-organisms.
Air ions can be artificially produced by the so-called “Air ionisers”. We call the air ionisers emitting exclusivey NAIs: "Negative Air Ions Generators" (NAIG)
The benefits of NAIs on aerocontaminant abatement and the appropriate “NAIGs” are reported in the section Air Quality.
The benefits of NAIs on our health and the “NAIGs” certified to emit “biologically active NAIs” are presented in this section.
Books on air ionisation:
Books on Oxygen Therapies
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