How much do you know about disinfection? Ozone is a great helper

I’ve been using a SoClean 2 ozone generating machine to sterilize my CPAP mask/hose/headgear for a couple years. I have COPD and realize that the ozone can be bad if breathed in before it dissipates and returns to plain oxygen which is a 2 hour process after a 7 minute generation/circulation. I run my CPAP to clear anything left in the system before retiring.

I don’t know iffn it kills Wuhan virus butt it can’t hurt IF used correctly.

And I still wash my mask/gasket along with my hands before making coffee in the morning.

I thought XTARS post was pretty informative, thank you for putting it up.

30 years ago, a friend started selling custom Ozone generators that were suppose to be fantastic both for your health and all kinds of other promises blah blah. I bought one to support my buddy. $600 was list but I paid $300 as he was a “dealer”. He used his daily and breathed in the air. I never liked it and it doesn’t smell anything like a waterfall or fresh rain to me, so used it when I wasn’t home and aired it out when I got back.

Anyway, I kept expecting buddy to flop over from cancer and he still hasn’t. We both still use them. My wife and I leave it at our home at the beach on a timer. It goes for 1/2 hour a day. When we show up we turn it off and open windows to air the place out. Works great for that, but as the MSDS noted, it does denigrate rubber substances and the rubber becomes sticky to the touch as it breaks down.

If it does that to rubber what do you think it does to the inside of your lungs?

Water will rust steel down to nothing, yet no one is saying water is unhealthy. However, again, I take care not to breath it in as I don’t like it nor do I trust it. Unlike some others:

https://www.silvermedicine.org/ozone-therapy-safety.html

https://thepowerofozone.com/116-reports-of-cancer-successfully-treated-with-ozone-therapy/

BTW, the thing I bought was an Ionator, which supposedly changes the charge on dust so that they drop out of the air, and it is also an ozonator.

UV lights only creates Ozone in specific 160 – 240 nm spectrum. This is very low and not usually what is used to kill bacteria/virus DNA at higher spectrums. Although most UV-C lights do cover a range of spectrums, so many will produce very low amounts of ozone. But likely if you can smell it, its not advisable. There used to be a product sold by Sharper Image called the Ionic Breeze. Remember that? It produced a lot of Ozone, and there was a law suite involved. In general however most UV lights in filters don’t produce much ozone.

Just be careful as you read that FDA hasn’t approved any of those machines for use to clean CPAP machines and related gear. Also ozone will also oxidize the plastic, so they will become brittle faster over time. Also Ozone tends to bleach man made materials such as plastic/foam etc… I’m pretty sure it kills viruses, because there are medical facilities that use it to dissinfect equipment since in gas form it can penetrate areas easier, that are difficult to reach by light or fluids. But they follow strict protocols and dissipation. To be on the safe side even 2 hour process isn’t quite enough as it barely reaches the half life of the gas. I’ve read closer to 3 hours.

If you read online, the devices are banned in any form in California, however Hotel chains (even in California) use it on a regular basis to “freshen up” their rooms, without claims of disinfection. People enter those rooms way too soon before allowing the gas to dissipate. In the long run it will damage their health.

Yeap, most people don’t realize how corrosive/oxidizing this stuff is. Luckily your lungs do have a capacity to repair itself over time. There is a reason why it even kills dust mites. Also read online, it will also kill electronic equipment much faster (so don’t use it to disinfect electronic equipment like your phone. Most man made polymers will become brittle and crack easier, and most likely become bleached. Organic materials like cotton won’t be as bad (like many face masks). Also car dealers and house mold abatement folks use it to get rid of mold in your vent pipes and crawl space, or to get rid of smoke and mildew smells.

In general in the lower atmosphere it is very bad for peoples health. All electric motors generate it, so don’t think cars like Teslas aren’t poluting the air. When all cars become electric, we will have a whole set of other problems. Sure it will dissipate but not in minutes. More like hours (but that’s for another discussion).

Ozones main benefit in the upper atmosphere is that it blocks the harmful UV rays we get. Including most of the UV-C. If it wasn’t there life as we know it won’t survive with so much UV-C and UV-B and A to a lesser degree.

The SoClean 2 is definitely NOT banned in California. My masks, hoses, water reservoirs are all replaced on a recommended schedule and I haven’t seen discoloration nor cracks/brittleness in my regular use. As I said I purge the system before masking up. I consider it a safe efficient way to sanitize my CPAP.

Do you still wash your tubing? I only ask because ozone doesn’t remove particulate matter, I would imagine you get dust and particles accumulating in there.

Yes, butt not daily as I do the mask which is against my face. Basically the only particulates that end up in the tube is what I exhale or cough as there are filters on the intake and my exhalation is against the incoming 10+ psi and exits through portals on the underside of the mask/hose connector. Now that I have the SoClean, I usually wash the hose biweekly.

Gotcha, thanks for the reply.

I’ve never washed my CPAP. But it’s only been @5-6 years since I fryed the last one on a trip to Paris. (it had a manual switch to go from 120 to 240, I flipped it before leaving and then forgot. When in Paris, I flipped it without my glasses on, forgetting I already had. Opps). The new one is automatic.

I don’t know much about decon.
But this guy does:

About 20m long.
When decomp cleaners use commercial ozone generators in a dwelling, they require all humans and pets stay away for 48 hours after treatment.

Keep Safe,
All the Best,
Jeff

I bought a UV light with ozone generator a while back to kill mold. While the instruction says it takes 4 hours for the ozone to turn into oxygen. I can still smell it after 8 hours! Ozone is something that should only be used when you plan to leave the house for the entire day (at least 12 hours). This is likely not possible during a stay-at-home order.

How can electric motors without brushes generate ozone?

The EPA (USA) advises against coming in contact with any form of ozone at any concentration. They go on to explain that ozone can chemically react with all sorts of other things in a home, sometimes resulting in secondary hazardous airborne contaminants. Mention the word to a pack of lab rats and they’ll scatter like stock brokers at tax time. Ozone belongs at 80,000 feet, not down here on the ground. I dunno, I’m sure there are scientific/industrial uses for the stuff but not at my house.

Ozone

The FDA, CDRH, and other agencies have their own take on this if one is inclined to do further research. I’m going to stay with bleach, sunshine, and hand washing for now. Hopefully it will be good enough.

So we have been washing our hands wrong all this time… poor souls who spent their paycheck stocking up Lysol and isopropyl alcohol, should’ve invested in UV and ozone equipment instead.

Cleaning service in London when you say you’re from the US. got it. You just come in from reddit or something?

Hey. What about making an ozone generator myself? Is it possible?