NEGATIVE IONS, VITAMINS OF THE AIR?

[Guest guest]

I'm going to be sharing a few articles I downloaded on

negative ions. I recently bought a negative ionizer

and am amazed at the difference in the way I feel!

No, I'm not selling them and won't be recommending any

particular brand. I simply wanted to share some

information that has been very helpful to me and may

be to you too.

 

Lynn

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http://www.portalmarket.com/negion.html

 

NEGATIVE IONS, VITAMINS OF THE AIR?

by:

Jim Karnstedt and Don Strachan

 

When certain kinds of winds begin to blow throughout

the world, hospital admissions, suicides, and crime

rates skyrocket. One country-Switzerland- even accepts

the blowing of the " Foehn " during the commission of a

crime as mitigating evidence in court.

 

These " notorious " desert and sea winds are also linked

to minor illnesses and malaise epidemics. Victims'

claims range from sleeplessness, irritability,

tension, migraines, nausea, palpitations and hot

flashes with sweating o shills to tremor, vertigo,

swelling, breathing difficulty, and frequent

intestinal movement. In addition, elderly persons are

affected with depression. apathy, and fatigue..

 

What causes these " witches' winds. " as they are often

called, to differ from others? What do they posses or

lack that make them a dread to the lands or oceans

they blow across?.

 

Nothing more than an imbalance of invisible, minute

particles with an imperceptive electrical

charge-positive and negative ions..

 

According to the experts, positive ions rob us of our

good senses and dispositions, while their counterpart,

negative ions, enhance them, stimulating everything

from plant growth to the human sex drive..

 

For the uninitiated, ions are charged particles in the

air, formed when enough energy acts on a molecule such

as carbon dioxide, oxygen, water or nitrogen-to eject

an electron. The displaced electron attaches itself to

a nearby molecule, which then becomes a negative ion

(neg-ion). The original molecule (minus an electron)

is now a positive ion (pos-ion). These ions, in turn,

react with dust and pollutants to form larger

particles. Small neg-ions (usually no more than 12

gaseous molecules clustered around a charged atom or

molecule) are short-lived and highly mobile..

 

As long ago as 1789, the Abbe Bertholon, European monk

speculated that ions exist and affect people. He

recorded the responses of medical patients and normal

people to changes in the electrical state of the

ambient air. More than a century later, in 1899, two

scientists named Elster and Geitel proved the

existence of ions. Only since the 1930s have

researchers been probing their secrets..

 

In nature, ions are formed in a variety of ways. About

half are created by radioactive gases. Radioactive

substances in the soil, cosmic rays, ultraviolet rays,

air flow friction, falling water and plants all

produce the other half. For example, they stream off

the leaves of plants, most notably pines and asparagus

ferns..

 

Ions are apparently also created by the phenomenon of

" subterranean suspiration " . As Fred Soyka, author of

The Ion Effect , told the first Ions and Light

Conference held this summer in Atherton, California.

" Solar and lunar influences cause the water table to

rise, forcing air out of the earth. " This prompted

Federal Aviation Administration research psychologist,

Bruce Rosenberg, to charge the earth with having " bad

breath. " Being negatively charged, he said, " it

breathes positive ions. " .

 

Normally only about one atom in

100,000,000,000,000,000 is ionized making a total of

maybe 1000-2000 ions per cubic centimeter (that's like

a handful of planets floating in a circle 4 billion

miles in diameter). These are usually balanced pretty

evenly between positive and negative, with a slight

edge toward positive. " However, the normal may not be

the optimal, " Fred Soyka told New Realities. " On the

seashore, where water is always falling, you have

about 2000 negative to 1000 positive. That seems to be

the ratio that human beings respond to most

favorably. "

 

We have all experienced this positive effect,

regardless of our proximity to waterfalls or the

ocean. Every home has a built in, natural ionizer-the

shower. Our daily bath rituals are, in effect, the

practice of preventive medicine. Research has shown

that falling water creates thousands of negative ions

by splitting other wise neutral particles of air,

freeing electrons to manifest their vitalizing

function. These electrons join up with smaller air

particles, thus giving them a predominantly negative

charge.

 

Waterfalls have always been the favorite habitat of

mystics and artists. The inspiration and romance

generated at places like Niagara Falls and Yosemite

have a direct relationship to the lowering of

serotonin levels in the blood, caused by the waves of

negative ions from the spray of these falls.

 

Those notorious desert and sea winds mentioned

previously raise the ion count, but over-balance the

positive-up to a ratio of 33 to 1 positive. As the

winds blow through arid areas, they stir up dust and

the neg-ions are leeched out. In Israel such winds are

called the Sharav; in the Alps the Foehn; along the

Mediterranean the Sharkiye (called the Sirocco in

Italy and the Xlokk in Malta); in Africa the Simoon,

Hamsin and Harmatan; in southern France, the Mistral.

There is the Boras of the Adriatic, the Karaburan of

the Gobi, the Zondi of Argentina, the Tramontana of

Spain. In the U.S., the Chinook plagues the Rockies

and the Santa Ana the southern California desert.

Still other winds pos-ionize India and Australia. But

whatever their name, throughout the world, they are

known to blow no good.

 

One might postulate that the culprit is really

humidity, wind or temperature changes, not positive

ionization. That has been considered, but doesn't

account for the fact that weather-sensitive people

react to the approaching Sharav 12 to 24 hours before

meteorological instruments do. Positive ionization

remains the culprit. So much for natural pos-ions.

 

The really lethal doses of pos-ions lie within our

polluted cities, which William Radley, president of

the Bio-Environmental Systems, refers to as " ion

prisons. " Car exhausts, factory fumes, tire dust,

cigarette smoke, cooking and heating fumes, dust and

soot gobble up neg-ions, either neutralizing or

positively charging them. Inside, steel and concrete

buildings act as electro-magnetic Faraday cages,

absorbing the charges of negative ions. Synthetic

building materials, clothing and furniture coverings

eat up more; so do the metal ducts covering heating

and air conditioning outlets. The positive static

charge of plastics takes care of the rest, so that in

a typical interior, the neg-ion count may be below 100

per cubic centimeter. (The minimal amount for optimum

human functioning is about 1000/ccm.) In the words of

Dr. William Rea, Chief of Surgery at Brookhaven

Medical Center in Texas, " Houses don't breathe like

they used to. "

 

Several people have investigated the mechanisms of

pos-ions' debilitating effects. According to the

Russian ion pioneer, Vasil'yev, ions act on the

endings of pulmonary afferent nerve fibers, altering

the functional state of the central nervous system

and, through it, the peripheral organs. Sulman et al

(1970) found that weather-sensitive people excrete

more of the neuro-hormone serotonin than non-sensitive

people. Serotonin is secreted by the pineal gland and

the intestines. It affects sleep, mood, nerve

impulses, blood-clotting and contraction of smooth

muscles. LSD effects are caused by a serotonin

inhibitor, and chronic serotonin depletion is

characteristic of some types of mental anomalies.

 

Sulman's work supports the findings of American ion

dean Dr. Albert P. Krueger, who discovered that the

specific negative ion or oxygen speeds up the rate at

which serotonin is oxidized in the bloodstream.

 

Krueger also found that pos-ions slow the sweeping

action of the tiny hairs in our throats from 900 to

600 beats per minute and cut mucus flow, thus lowering

our resistance to airborne allergens. For example, the

pos-ion carbon dioxide causes contracture of the back

tracheal wall. Pos-ions also cause vasoconstriction

and increased respiration rate.

 

Oddly enough, notes ion author Soyka, " About five

percent of the population seems to react well to a

positive charge. They feel euphoric. "

 

If pos-ions are the bad guys, neg-ions wear white hats

and shoot silver bullets. Their beneficial effect was

first discovered in 1932 by Dr. C.W. Hansell at RCA

Laboratories. Dr. Hansell was startled by the violent

mood shifts of a co-worker who sat beside an

electrostatic generator. He observed carefully and

discovered that his colleague was ebullient when the

machine produced neg-ions and morose when it made

pos-ions.

 

Subsequently researchers (mostly abroad) have found

that neg-ions reduce neurosis and anxiety, heighten

appetite and thirst and stimulate sexual behavior.

They improved performance of voluntary movements: 81.2

percent of drivers with neg-ion generators scored in

the top half on driving tests: 86 percent in the top

half on reaction time. In school they sharpen mental

functioning and reduce error rates. After a year with

neg-ion generators in their classrooms, a group of

kindergarten teachers reported that their students

concentrated better and showed almost no 'weather

effect. " Hyperactive kids were calmer. absenteeism was

down (except on Mondays} and the teachers themselves

felt less fatigued.

 

Neg-ions promote alpha brain waves and increase brain

wave amplitude, which translates to a higher awareness

level. Neg-ion Induced alpha waves spread from the

occipital area to the parietal and temporal and even

reach the frontal lobes, spreading evenly across the

right and left brain hemispheres. All of this creates

an overall calming effect.

 

On the physical side, they have given relief from hay

fever. sinusitis. bronchial asthma. allergies.

migraine and burn and post-operative pains. Along with

the burn pain relief. they lesson infections dry the

burns faster, heal them more quickly and leave less

scarring. After operations. not only did 57 percent of

Dr. Igho Hart Kornblueh's patients treated with large

doses of neg-ions (10,000/ccm) feel less pain (as

opposed to 22.5 percent of controls), but restlessness

and infection were also reduced and healing quickened.

 

But why are ions therapeutic? Partly because they kill

germs. Back in the 1930s. a Russian team headed by A

L. Tchijevski found that large ion doses of either

polarity retarded bacteria colony formation on plates.

Ionization also sterilized enclosed air. Latter

experiments duplicating Tchijevski's work noted an

exponential bacteria decay rate of 23 percent per

minute for untreated air 34 percent per minute for air

with pos-ions. and 78 percent per minute for

negatively charged air. They concluded that the

pos-ion decay rate was due to simple bonding or the

ions with the bacteria, whereas the neg-ions actually

killed them.

 

Interestingly, animals larger than microbes find

neg-ions beneficial. Rats learn better and are less

anxious. Mice live longer. (Mice with flu die more

quickly If deprived of neg-ions.) Silkworm eggs hatch

earlier, larvae grow faster, spinning begins sooner,

cocoons are heavier. chickens lay more eggs and grow

more plump. Sheep grow faster and supply more wool.

 

And in the vegetable kingdom. plant seedlings grow up

to 50 percent more when charged. Fruit stays fresh

longer: after 10 days, ionized tomatoes were still

fresh while untreated controls rotted.

 

Researches offer a variety of reasons for ion effect.

Dr Krueger explains that plants benefit from both

positive and negative ions because " ions expedite both

the uptake of ion and its utilization in the

production of iron containing enzymes (and) stimulate

the metabolism of ATP in the chloroplasts and augment

both nucleic acid metabolism and oxygen uptake. "

 

In humans, most researchers think that neg-ions act on

our capacity to absorb and utilize oxygen,

accelerating the blood's delivery of oxygen to our

cells and tissues. Dr. R. Gualterotti of the

University of Milan says they make wider cell nuclei

with more volume. The weight of evidence supports

Krueger's theory that ions break down serotonin in the

bloodstream. Lest negative ions sound too much like a

cure-all, testers report that neg-ions work only so

long as they're being inhaled. As the charge is most

readily absorbed through the olfactory nerves, you

need to breathe them in through your nose, not your

mouth. Dr. Krueger cautions that ''the biological (non

clinical) effects produced by atmospheric ions are not

dramatic; on the contrary, they tend to be limited in

degree.''

 

But that's atmospheric ions. Artificially generated

ions arc another story. Just as positive ions can be

generated artificially by pollution. so can negative

ions be man madeÑwith negative ion generators. It's

true, you can't plug in an ionizer at night and expect

new muscles in the morning. But their effects are not

always subtle. '' People are allergic to the Twentieth

Century,'' says Bio-Environmental Systems President

William Radley. " Our architects and interior designers

are poisoning us. Some people are so sick or so

intolerant of chemicals that sometimes the results of

ionization are quite dramatic.''

 

Since the 1950s, manufacturers have produced dozens of

ion generators for laboratory and home use. Early

machines ionized atoms and molecules via high-voltage

electrical fields, incandescent materials, ultraviolet

light, x-rays and alpha or beta radiation from

isotopes. The output of the electrostatic,

incandescent, and ultraviolet generators tended to

deteriorate rapidly. In addition, electrostatic and

ultraviolet machines produced ozone, a toxic oxygen

allotrope, as a by-product.

 

Dr. Krueger used tritium-based generators during the

50's. Tritium is a beta radiating hydrogen isotope

with a half-life of 12.5 years. A minute amount of the

gas is sealed in zirconium and deposited on a

stainless steel foil. An electrical potential

difference varying from 300 to 2000 volts DC is used

to separate pos-ions from neg-ions before they

recombine in the plasma. Tritium machines allow

precise dosages, but unfortunately tritium is so

dangerous that it's illegal (except in fusion power

plants). This, the tritium generators manufactured

during this period were seized by the FDA.

 

During the 1960s, ion collectors drew air through an

electrostatic field between parallel plates or

concentric cylinders: the ions were collected on the

plates. Present ion units apply a high voltage

electrical signal directly to the air to create an

intense electric field around the emitters.

 

Why not set up a monster ionizer over Manhattan? Well,

safety dictates a size limit. Dr Robert Massy of the

University of the Trees reported at the Ions and Light

Conference that, whereas a 5 ,000-volt machine

produces less than .05 parts per million of ozone (the

limit allowed by the FDA), extremely high-voltage

units invariably fail to meet standards.

 

Although most people in the U.S. are not ion-wise,

generators have been popular elsewhere in the world

for decades. In World War 11, Luftwaffe planes were

negatively ionized by electric field generators, in

order to reduce pilot fatigue. And it worked!

(Electric field generators are like female ion

generators: instead of ejecting ions, they attract

them. Germany and the USSR use them in government

buildings, hospitals, schools, factories, restaurants,

health spas, beauty salons, homes, offices, cars and

trucks. In Canada, Fred Soyka notes. " Ionization has

become a household word. My book became a best-seller,

and innumerable articles have come out.''

 

The U.S. has equipped nuclear submarines with ion

machines. Ionizers are being used industrially in auto

spray paint booths, food processing plants, grain

storage bins and chemical spray factories.

 

Architects and designers are beginning to see the

health benefits from fountains and rooftop solariums

placed in urban environments, echoing the wisdom of

their forefathers in the Roman culture. The growing

recognition of our biological needs amidst our

artificial interiors is opening up whole new

industries armed at replicating nature indoors. In

addition, we could all take Rosenberg's advice and

wear underwear of polyvinyl chloride to attract

neg-ions. From BVD's to PVC's then, it's the negative

ion generation.

 

Several machines are now on the market for home and

office use ranging in cost from about $70 to several

thousand dollars You just plug them in and they ionize

away. But, here are some considerations to keep In

mind. If something or someone is between you and the

generator, the ion count around you will drop. If you

and the machine are in contact with the same

dielectric material (as for instance, If it and your

arms are on the same desk), a charge will build up

between you and it, and this charge will repel ions.

(Supposedly this doesn't happen with the latest

machines.) Also, your own static charge will often

repel ions, especially in dry indoor wintertime air.

Synthetic clothing absorbs ions: wear cotton or wool,

which have neutral charges.

 

At the Ions and Light Conference, Fred Soyka told New

Realities of some in-progress Swiss research on ion

machine frequencies. Frequencies of 60-100 Hz

(cycles/sec) are stimulating to a person. while less

than 25 Hz are relaxing. " If you have 60-100 Hz

frequency machine, " Soyka says " you may have trouble

sleeping well with it on. Manufacturers ought to look

into machines with adjustable frequency ranges. Some

European machines already modulate frequency so people

can dial their needs electrically.

 

A problem with ionizers has been determining their

effectiveness. A typical generator may supposedly

churn out 100 billion ions per second. But how many of

them survive a yard past the machine? Ion counted do

exist but up unto now no store or salesperson selling

generators has had one around. Inexpensive units are

now on the assembly line. Ion counters must be used

carefully: within a room the ion concentration vanes a

lot depending on how far you are from the generator.

from conducting walls from charge buildup on

insulating walls from curtains or draperies . Poor

measurability panty explains why shoddy machines have

been marketed (and confiscated by the FDA in the past.

Today regrettably the field is still not without its

quacks. According to Brute Sullivan. president of

Environmental Sciences Corp. ''Some people Are selling

generators for thousands One company calls its machine

The Air Doctor.''

 

Advanced technology has eliminated main problems

associated with previous ion devices. and as such

there are more on the market today. Moreover, it is

now possible to create higher voltages with lower

current, thereby reducing or eliminating the

production of ozone (Federal law prohibits the

production of more than .05 parts per million or 50ppb

of ozone). So to ensure that device meets the buyer's

needs, one should carefully examine the manufacturer's

literature.

 

In addition buyers should look for a warranty on parts

and labor including a description of the room size

affected by the machine. and even a money-back trial

period offer. A list of authorized service centers

should also be provided to the consumer. So caution is

still the watchword since industry standardization has

yet to be instituted, although industry standards for

ion measurement and output are currently being drawn

up by several manufacturers.

 

The first call for some kind of industry standards was

issued by ion pioneer Igho Hart Kornblueh back in

1961: " Standardization of the generating and metering

equipment by an independent authority would terminate

the hasty and regrettable trend to market ion

generator of questionable safety, quality and output. "

 

Today Fred Soyka echoes his words: ''Measuring the

sending capacity of these machines is very important.

You should be able to say, like when you buy a 60 watt

light bulb, " I'm getting an ionizer of this capacity,

and to correlate that to room sizes. " A giant step was

taken at the Ions and Light Conference where the

International BioEnvironmental Society was formed to

set up standards and regulations within the industry.

" We've already gone though our Inquisition on

ionization, " said president Bruce Sullivan. " We don't

need another one.'' The Association is building a box

within which the ion output of different machines can

be counted at a standard distance and humidity.

 

Ions have been around for eons. Science has had its

eye on the ion for 80 years. But public ignorance,

generally non-ionized interiors and lack of generator

standards, is the hallmark of a science and industry

still in its infancy. Dr. E.R. Holiday thinks we know

as much about air today as we did about 70 years ago

when biochemists thought proteins, fat and

carbohydrates were all we needed. Then a substance was

discovered that prevented rickets: the first vitamin.

Ions might well be, as Holiday suggests, " the vitamins

of the air. "

 

James Karnstedt is a writer, lecturer and researcher

whose interests lie in the field of light, color,

sound and ions as they affect human consciousness and

health.

 

 

 

 

 

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