MUNICH: Passive smoking claims more than 600,000 lives each year around the world – an estimated 1 per cent of all deaths, a global study has found.

In the first look at the global impact of second-hand smoking, researchers analysed data from 2004 for 192 countries. They found 40 per cent of children and more than 30 per cent of non-smoking men and women regularly breathe in second-hand smoke. Scientists then estimated that passive smoking causes about 379,000 deaths from heart disease, 165,000 deaths from lower respiratory disease, 36,900 deaths from asthma and 21,400 deaths from lung cancer a year, according to the study published yesterday in the medical journal The Lancet.

Women accounted for 47 per cent of the deaths, children 28 per cent and men 26 per cent. Deaths in adults were spread evenly across the globe, the research, led by Annette Pruess-Ustuen of the World Health Organisation in Geneva, showed.

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”There can be no question that the 1 billion smokers in the world are exposing billions of non-smokers to second-hand smoke, a disease-causing indoor air pollutant,” Heather Wipfli and Jonathan Samet of the University of Southern California said in an accompanying editorial.

”Few sources of indoor-air pollution can be completely eliminated. However, smoking indoors can be eliminated – with substantial benefits, as shown by this new set of estimates.”

”This helps us understand the real toll of tobacco,” said Armando Peruga, a program manager at the World Health Organisation’s Tobacco-Free Initiative, who led the study. He said the 603,000 deaths from second-hand smoking should be added to the 5.1 million deaths that smoking itself causes every year.

Dr Peruga said WHO was particularly concerned about the 165,000 children who die of smoke-related respiratory infections, mostly in south-east Asia and Africa. ”The mix of infectious diseases and second-hand smoke is a deadly combination,” he said.

Children whose parents smoke have a higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome, ear infections, pneumonia, bronchitis and asthma. Their lungs may also grow more slowly than children whose parents don’t smoke.

Dr Peruga and colleagues found the highest numbers of people exposed to second-hand smoke are in Europe and Asia. The lowest rates of exposure were in the Americas, the eastern Mediterranean and Africa.

Second-hand smoke had its biggest impact on women, killing about 281,000. In many parts of the world, women are at least 50 per cent more likely to be exposed to second-hand smoke than men. While many Western countries have introduced smoking bans in public places, experts said it would be difficult to legislate further.

The British Lung Foundation is petitioning the government to outlaw smoking in cars. Helena Shovelton, the foundation’s chief executive, said smoking parents frequently underestimated the danger their habit was doing to their children.

”It’s almost as if people are in denial,” she said. ”They absolutely would not do something dangerous like leaving their child in the middle of the road but somehow, smoking in front of them is fine.”

The researchers used 2004 data gathered in 192 countries. The study estimates that 10.9 million years of good health were lost.

Bloomberg, Associated Press

Download podcast at <http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2010/07/episode-407-mysterious-universe/>

Would you like some salt with your lamp? No? Well then perhaps you should seek your negative ions from The Elanra by the Australian based company Bionic Products. I have longed to buy an Elanra as it has been long touted for its incredible health benefits. I finally I bit the bullet and purchased one. So far my experience with it has been incredible.

First, let me explain. When I was a child my parents insisted on running this monstrous machine in the bedroom that made noises that I could only attribute to it containing horrific childhood monsters. This was the ionizer of the 80′s. Despite its noises my parents insisted on running it through the winter to ensure I didn’t get a cold. Surprisingly, it was very rare that I missed school because of colds or flus. The Elanra of today is much different.

The Elanra has done away with these giant horrific machines of the 80′s and compressed an incredible machine into a compact portable health improving device. Elanras produce small biologically active negative ions of oxygen which can be ingested into the body.

PROS

Inhaling the small negative ions of oxygen produced by the Elanra Ionizer helps your body to regain its own natural balance. Restoring this balance has been shown to produce many positive benefits including:

• Less susceptibility to colds and flu
• Less fatigue
• Natural detoxification of the body
• Improved sleep, relaxation and meditation
• Comfortable breathing
• Relief from allergies and hay fever
• Relief from sinus congestion and inflammation
• Enhancement of the body’s natural defence mechanisms
• Decreased stress, irritability and tension
• Increased alertness
• Increased work productivity
• Improved concentration
• Maintenance of normal functioning of all body systems

So what of these claims? Do they really work? In my experience… YES

I really wanted to do a through review of this device so I have carried it around in multiple situations for the past week. First I ran it the second night of the Nexus conference in the hotel room. I woke up refreshed and felt strangely full of energy.

Once I got home, I put the Elanra next to my bed and ran it while I slept. Again, I woke up feeling great. One of the most compelling experiences I has was when I ran Episode 407 by myself. I was up until 4.30am recording, yet while I felt tired, I didn’t feel exhausted. I then got up the following morning at 9am and felt so energetic that I went out and got a heap of errands done that I had been putting off for a long time.

On top of everything else, with the Elanra running in the studio by day and near my bed by night, I have finally rid myself of this nagging cold that has been affecting the production of our shows recently.

The Elanra is available in 3 different models (I picked up the MKIII) and can be purchased fromnegativeions.com Each device has multiple user selectable programs and there is a model to suit your needs.

Don’t believe it? Check out the scientific peer reviewed articles which back the Elanra. Additionally, the Elanra by Bionic Products is the only ionizer approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration. Trust me, they don’t approve anything without strict scrutiny.

To read full review, click on <http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2010/08/elanra-review-a-breath-of-fresh-air/>

“Negative ions have long been proven to prevent illness and increase productivity in the workplace, as seen in a study conducted by Surrey University at the Norwich Union Insurance Group, which showed that negative ionisation was responsible for a 78% reduction in the incidence of sickness and headaches amongst staff and could improve task performance by as much as 28%”. In the corporate environment, workers spend the majority of their day in air-conditioned or heated spaces, in front of a computer and under fluorescent lighting, conditions known to generate harmful positive ions which have been linked to increased anxiety, stress and fatigue. To eradicate the harmful effects of positive ions, workers are looking to the therapeutic benefits of negative ions to create a healthier working environment, with more and more studies proving their many benefits, particularly in improving concentration, learning and fighting illness. So read on…and find out more about the health benefits of negative ions! Ed.

Forget about absenteeism. There’s a bigger issue infecting workplaces and it’s called ‘presenteeism’. It’s when employees are on site but mentally absent. In defiance of their coughs and colds, they turn up to work thinking they’re doing the right thing. But they’re not.

There are three main causes spreading the plague of presenteeism. The first is a fear employees will lose a bit of cash or even their job. The second is a distressing worry the work will pile up while they’re off sick. And the third is an overwhelming guilt that workmates will be left to carry the load. What they really end up carrying is the newly introduced office bug.

Other side effects include asinine mistakes when a mind is too cluttered by illness to think clearly, as well as reduced productivity when employees can’t work to their ordinary capacity despite receiving their ordinary wages.

All of this is crippling employers a lot more than those lazy buggers chucking sickies. In fact, four times more.  Medibank Private estimates it costs Australian businesses $17 billion a year and that six working days are lost per annum per employee. And earlier this year, an analysis of 60,000 employees was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, which found that psychological pressures were the greatest contributors to diminished productivity at work.

I spoke to Dr Paul Lanthois, the head of the Work/Life Balance Foundation, who believes that employers should be helping their workers get healthy and fit. He said, “A lot of them might say, ‘hang on, that’s not our responsibility’, and that what people do in their own time is their own business, but plenty of research shows the impact of wellness on productivity.”

Afflictions of presenteeism and their workplace consequences have been compiled by MBF. Depression, anxiety and stress depress performance by 13 per cent. Headaches and migraines slash it by 41 per cent. Lack of sleep erodes efficiency by up to a third. Neck and back pain crush productivity by one fifth. And obesity drags output down by around 14 per cent. If an employee happens to suffer from several of these misfortunes at the same time, and that includes other ailments like influenza and hay fever, the result could be the paying of full-time wages for a part-time worker.

“Managers should be providing guidance and introducing health and wellness programs within the organisation,” says Dr Lanthois. “They want to get more productivity out of people and to have them working harder, but it’s not sustainable if employees don’t have the capacity to work at that higher level. Managers need to see this is as an important business strategy.”

Paul Keating delivered the most public and scathing declaration of presenteeism last week. Though he didn’t mention the p-word by name, it was woven implicitly throughout his biting accusation that he carried Bob Hawke during four of his prime ministerial years. Blaming depression for Hawke’s “emotional and intellectual malaise”, he described Hawke’s subsequent performance as “lacklustre” and as “executive incapacity”. If his allegations are correct, Bob Hawke had a severe bout of presenteeism.

What we know for sure is he wasn’t the only one. A report released in the UK in April by the Work Foundation found that 45 per cent of employees go to work when they’re unwell as opposed to only 18 per cent who choose to take a day off instead. Their research revealed many sick employees felt compelled to come to work solely to prove they were genuinely unwell, leading to a widespread perception that managers don’t really care about their employees’ well-being.

Regardless, with tissues in hand, they schlep themselves to the office where they display the characteristics of Louie the fly, spreading disease with the greatest of ease, on everything from telephones to meeting rooms, and from table tops to chairs and doorknobs.

Whatever reasons they possess for fronting up at work, it’s not good for them, their colleagues, or their employer. Workers should be cognisant of the wisdom in taking a day off when they need one.  And employers should recognise that a healthy employee means a productive workplace. As Leon Eldred famously said, “If I’d known I was going to live so long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

Written by James Adonis, author of ‘Corporate Punishment: Smashing the management cliches for leaders in a new world’.

While we are told to protect ourselves from the flu by frequently washing our hands with soap and water, and cleaning toys and door knobs with powerful detergent that kills 99.9999% of the germs, most of the bugs we catch are airborne. While prescriptive antiviral drugs and antibiotics may cause unpleasant side effects, and there are rumours of flu vaccines doing more harm than good to those with already compromised immune systems, the Elanra is a viable, safe and cost-effective solution.

It is a well-established scientific fact that negative ions destroy bacteria, viruses and mould spores. Nature demonstrates this by the lack of fungus and mosses growing in pine forests – airborne spores are destroyed by natural ionisation. In UK, where Elanra ionisers are placed in some Nursery/Infant Schools, it is found that absences during term drop noticeably. Infections if they occur to any extent happen during the holidays or right at the beginning of term while mid-term attendance figures are excellent.

Sometime back, it was reported in the New Scientist that repeated airborne infections of the highly drug-resistant bacteria acinetobacter in an intensive care ward have been eliminated by the installation of a negative air ioniser. Infection rate fell to zero during the year long trial. Furthermore, a 8 year long research in the La Trobe University of Australia showed that breathing in the biologically active oxygen ions from the Elanra actually boost the body’s production of the antibody Immunoglobulin A to counter infections.

What bliss and peace of mind if every health-practitioner’s waiting room and every child care centre would have an Elanra. So, in answer to HPB’s mind provoking maxim “How far can your flu bug go?“, we say with confidence, “With an Elanra, they can’t go far.”

Announcements :

We are pleased to inform that our official Elanra Service Centre is now located at:

Nutrimax Organics Yogi House

390, Victoria Street, #02-30

Singapore 188061

You will be able to purchase ionisers and needles there, as well as to receive advise on therapeutic settings. You are still able to call me (Rosalind) anytime at 96313710.

Wishing you a safe and happy week. (And don’t let the bug bite.)

In 1975, Nanzandoh Medical Clinic in Japan published some astonishing results from their research on negative ion therapy, finding it effective in the treatment of high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, tinnitus (ringing of the ears), as well as for various disorders of the nervous, respiratory, and digestive systems, thyroid gland, and skin. It was also found to speed recovery from illness and slow aging processes.

A clinic near Ueyamada Hot Spring in Shinshu, Japan, treated Alzheimer’s patients with negative ion therapy, and more than half were cured of the disease, recovering on their own with no further treatment! Following this, a medical team at Shinshu University also found that negative ions work to heal damaged cells in mice.

Dr. Tomoh Tsubushi, a medical professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University and sports medicine specialist, has closely followed negative ion research. In 1997, he concluded from his own studies that when negative ion therapy was applied after exercise, it quickly normalized blood pressure, reduced serum serotonin levels, and accelerated recovery time from exhaustion. In 2000, his paper on the beneficial effects of negative ions on the human body was published in Shuki no Kenkyu, a Japanese scientific journal.

According to research conducted by Shiseido, the world renowned Japanese cosmetics company, inhaling air containing 3,200 positive ions per cubic centimeter for 20 minutes resulted in thirst, loss of voice, and nasal congestion due to elevated serum serotonin levels. In contrast, inhaling negative ions for 10 minutes stabilized brain waves, resulting in a sense of calmness. In the group that inhaled negative ions, hardly any serotonin was detected in blood or urine samples. (Negative ions cause the body to convert excess serotonin – the antagonist for most of the problems – into a harmless chemical compound).

The following is excerpted from an article by Guy Cramer, entitled “Advanced Research on Atmospheric Ions and Respiratory Problems” (Certified Medinex Website, Sept. 2, 1996, http://mypage.direct.ca/g/gcramer/asthma.html)
“A doctor treating burn victims with negative ion generators found that those patients who also had respiratory problems – chronic bronchitis or asthma – all reported that negative ion therapy helped them breathe more easily. With these findings the doctor started research into the effects of ions on respiratory ills. This research was carried out at the Northeastern Hospital, at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate Hospital, and the Frankford Hospital in Philadelphia. He found 63% of patients suffering from hay fever or bronchial asthma ‘have experienced partial or total relief’ because of negative ion therapy. One hospital doctor who worked on the project said later, ‘They come in sneezing, eyes watering, nose itching, worn out from lack of sleep, so miserable they can hardly walk. Fifteen minutes in front of the negative ion machine and they feel so much better they don’t even want to leave.’”

“The U.S. experimenters Windsor and Becket gave sixteen volunteers overdoses of positive ions for just 20 minutes at a time and all of them developed dry throats, husky voices, headaches, and itchy or obstructed noses. Five of the volunteers were tested for total breathing capacity, and it was found that a positive ion overdose reduced that capacity by 30 percent. Exposed to negative ions for ten minutes, the volunteers’ maximum breathing capacity was unaffected. What is significant here is that negative ions did not affect the amount of air breathed, but positive ions made breathing more difficult.”
]]> http://ionizerblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/researching-the-effects-of-negative-ions/feed/ 0 ionizerblog http://ionizerblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/the-positive-health-benefits-of-negative-ions/ http://ionizerblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/the-positive-health-benefits-of-negative-ions/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:59:54 +0000 ionizerblog http://ionizerblog.wordpress.com/?p=33 ]]> By Jim English

Air pollution is a serious, though often unrecognized health problem. Epidemiological studies consistently point to a direct link between urban air pollution – especially particulate pollution created by combustion powered vehicles and power generation plants – and cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. (1) Long-term exposure to particulate pollution – tiny particles smaller than 10 microns (a human hair is 70 microns wide) – is known to increase illness and death rates from lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema. Additionally, exposure to other airborne pollutants, including sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3), is associated with development of asthma, bronchitis, and respiratory infections. (2)

European researchers investigated the risks of long-term exposure to traffic pollution in a study examining 5000 volunteers selected from the ongoing Netherlands Cohort study on Diet and Cancer (NLCS). They discovered that people living near major roads (and therefore exposed to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution) were more likely to die from cardiopulmonary disease or lung cancer than their rural peers, leading the authors to conclude that ‘long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution may shorten life expectancy. (3)

Air Pollution Linked to Heart Damage

In addition to causing lung damage, air pollution is now also recognized as a threat to cardiovascular health. Reporting in the March 6, 2002 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers examined long-term health data on 500,000 individuals to compare increases in air pollution levels with incidence of death. They discovered that when air pollution levels suddenly increased, in addition to expected increases in deaths from asthma, pneumonia, and emphysema, there was an unexpected increase in the number of deaths related to heart attacks and stroke. Most surprising was the finding that when air pollution levels rose, so did deaths from all causes, not just those related to the heart and lungs.

One possible explanation for the increase in cardiovascular-related deaths is that air pollution causes oxidative stress that, in turn, triggers an inflammatory response in the lungs that leads to the release of chemicals that impair heart function and blood pressure.

This was shown to be the case when scientists working in the Netherlands exposed rats to high levels of particulate air pollution. Following exposure, the researchers found that plasma levels of fibrinogen were elevated by 20 percent, which could presumably increase blood viscosity, leading to decreased tissue blood flow. They also measured a 400 percent jump in tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, and a 350 percent increase in nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in lung fluids. The researchers speculated that as particulates lodge in lung tissues they induce an increase in the production of nitric oxide (NO). Under normal conditions nitric oxide is an important neurotransmitter that aids numerous signaling pathways involved in motor learning, protein modification, arterial dilation and immune defense. But when conditions trigger the overproduction of NO as seen in the Netherlands study, the result is serious damage to the endothelial cells lining the blood vessels of the lungs. (5)

When Japanese researchers exposed guinea pigs to particulates from diesel exhaust, the lungs showed a significant elevation of leukotrienes and eosinophils, two important biomarkers of inflammation and cytotoxicity commonly observed in cases of chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD). The researchers noted that these findings indicate that chronic exposure to diesel exhaust induces continuous inflammation and overproduction of mucus and phospholipids in the lung. (6)

Another mechanism implicated in air pollution-related heart failures involves bone marrow and atherosclerotic plaques. Researchers in Vancouver, British Columbia found that exposure to high levels of air pollution stimulates bone marrow to release leukocytes and platelets that accumulate preferentially in pulmonary capillaries. In addition to causing damage to lung tissues, the researchers also observed that inhalation of particulate pollution causes changes in atherosclerotic plaque lesions that make the deposits more vulnerable to rupture.

They postulated that exposure to particulate air pollution induces a systemic inflammatory response that includes the release of inflammatory mediators that stimulate bone marrow to release leukocytes and platelets, leading to lung inflammation and changes of atherosclerotic plaque, making them more vulnerable to rupture. (7)

Diabetics and Elderly at Increased Risk

Diabetics are particularly susceptible to cardiovascular damage caused by airborne pollution. A recent study published in the journal Epidemiology examined Medicare records and hospital admissions in US cities: Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Seattle. Looking at records from 1988 to 1994 they found that diabetics were twice as likely as non-diabetics to be admitted to a hospital with a cardiovascular problem caused by airborne particulate pollution. They also found that persons 75 years of age and older also faced a higher risk of cardiovascular injury. (8)

Children and Air Pollution

Children are particularly at risk for health issues related to air pollution. Chronic exposure to particulates, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide have been associated with up to 300 percent increases in nonspecific chronic respiratory symptoms. Exposure to automotive pollution, particularly from truck and diesel exhaust, has been shown to cause significant increases in respiratory symptoms and decreased lung function. (9)

To examine the relationship between traffic-related air pollution and childhood development of asthma and other childhood respiratory diseases and infections, researchers in the Netherlands looked at data from some 4,000 babies born in the Netherlands. The health of the children was linked to measurements of traffic-generated air pollution (nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter, and soot) in the homes of each subject. Their study found that, by the age of two years, children exposed to higher levels of air pollutants were more likely to suffer from wheezing, physician-diagnosed asthma, ear/nose/throat infections, and flu/serious colds. (10)

Part of the problem for children is that studies show that – relative to their size – children inhale more deeply and trap more airborne particles and pollutants in their lungs than either adolescents or adults. (11) Children also have higher metabolic rates than adults, breathe more than adults, and spend more time outdoors than adults, exacerbating their susceptibility to pollution-related health problems.

Children’s Growth Stunted

When Polish researchers examined the effects of air pollution in Krakow they discovered that children living in those areas with the highest levels of air pollution suffered from stunted growth. After collecting data on 958 children and assessing body growth rates by height changes they found that body growth rates for children from the most highly polluted area was lower by 1.5 cm over a 2-year period than those from the control area. The compromising effect of air pollution on height gains was about the same for both short and tall children. (12)

Air Pollution and DNA Mutations

New research shows that the health threat posed by air pollution may actually affect children even before they are born. On December 9, 2002, Canadian researchers published a study revealing that animals exposed to polluted air close to a steel mill suffered genetic damage and produced fewer offspring. Most alarming was the discovery that damaged DNA was being passed on to offspring by their fathers. While virtually all mutations were inherited from the father mice, the researchers said this doesn’t mean that females are not susceptible. What it does suggest is that steel workers, who are mostly male, may be at extra risk of similar damage.

Christopher Somers, James Quinn, and colleagues published an earlier study that found that gulls living near a steel mill on Lake Ontario suffered from genetic mutations. In a current study the researchers raised two groups of mice – the first a half-mile downwind of a steel mill on Lake Ontario, and the second about 20 miles away. The mice breathing the polluted air had twice as many mutations in their DNA as the mice breathing fresh country air. (13)

The findings suggest that steel mill workers and people living near those mills should be checked for damage to their health, said the researchers, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. “Our findings suggest that there is an urgent need to investigate the genetic consequences associated with exposure to chemical pollution through the inhalation of urban and industrial air.”

Ironically, the study was originally aimed at showing how efforts to clean up pollution around the steel mill had improved the environment. ‘This had been one of the most polluted places, if not the most polluted place in Canada,’ stated Christopher Somers, one of the lead researchers. ‘There has been a concerted effort to clean up Hamilton harbor and reduce air emissions.’ The experiment had been aimed at showing these had helped. ”We haven’t really seen that,” he said.

Protecting Your Lungs

While government, business and environmental interests wrangle over a morass of economic, legislative and technological solutions for cleaning up polluted air, the vital issue facing individuals is how best to protect their health. Currently over 75 million people in the US live in counties where the air concentrations of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) exceed safe levels.

While living away from polluted urban centers is an obvious choice, this option is not always possible. Nor is it always effective. Air currents and weather patterns can move polluted air out of urban manufacturing centers and into rural areas where pollution can concentrate to a dangerous degree. Additionally, modern farming produces more food with fewer workers, using improved productivity methods that increasingly rely on the use of agricultural pesticides and chemicals, and irrigation pumps and tractors powered by diesel engines. (15)

Staying indoors does not guarantee better air quality, either. Several recent studies have indicated that much of the significant health risk associated with exposure to fine particles actually occurred indoors. (16) And many individuals at increased risk of health complications following exposure to high particle concentrations, such as the elderly and those suffering from cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, may spend more than 90% of their time indoors, raising new concerns about the relationship between outdoor particle concentrations and those found in indoor microenvironments. (17)

Air Purifiers

As the scope of air pollution related health problems grows, so too does the number of people turning to air purifying solutions for protection. Home air filtration products offer a number of options, including electrostatic, UV radiation, water and advanced HEPA filtration technologies. Until recently, these products – many engineered for entire houses and buildings – were bulky and expensive to install and maintain, placing them out of reach for most people. Recently, a number of consumer products have become available utilizing ion-generating technology to eliminate airborne pollutants, allergens and viruses from immediate breathing spaces.

These devices work by generating a flow of negative ions that charge and bind together airborne particulate matter, which then clumps and precipitates out of the air. Ion generating devices have been shown to be effective against dust, cigarette smoke, pet dander, pollen, mold spores, viruses, and bacteria. In addition to eliminating harmful particulates from the air, negative ions also have a number of unique health benefits.

Positive Ions – An Ill Wind Blows

Early clues about the biological effect of ions on human health appear as reports of increased irritability, migraine attacks and thromboembolism in response to alterations in atmospheric electrical states that accompany incoming weather fronts. (18)

Scientific evidence began to mount in the 1970s when researchers measured metabolic changes in mice and rats in response to changes in ion charge (negative or positive) and concentration, including alterations in serotonin levels and recovery from illness. When exposed to positive ions (which accumulate in the atmosphere at the beginning of a storm) researchers routinely noted that animals became agitated, aggressive and were more prone to respiratory illness. Furthermore, when mice were infected with influenza virus and housed in an environment depleted of all ions, death rates increased, indicating a previously unknown benefit on overall health. (19)

Later, researchers measured the impact of atmospheric electricity on human subjects by monitoring daily changes in urine excretion of neurohormones in samples gathered from 1,000 volunteers exposed to positive ions generated 1 to 2 days prior to the arrival of a storm front. By measuring the changing levels of neurohormones in the 24-hour urinary output of the subjects during normal and weather-stress days, the researchers compiled a profile of changes in levels of serotonin, 5-HIAA (5-hydroxyindole acetic acid, a serotonin metabolite), adrenaline, noradrenaline, histamine and thyroxine.

The researchers found that the electrical charges (positive ionization) engendered by every incoming weather front produce a release of serotonin. (20) They further identified three classes of weather sensitivity reactions:

1. serotonin hyperproduction causing a typical irritation syndrome;
2. adrenal deficiency producing a typical exhaustion syndrome;
3. hyperthyroidism with subclinical ‘apathetic’ thyroid symptoms.

Noting that these conditions occur during annual wind storms (Sirocco, Sharav and Santa Ana winds), the authors stated that the effects, “which are mainly due to positive ionization of the air,” could be “prevented by negative ionizing apparatuses or specific drug treatment.” (21)

Further evidence of the influence of ions appeared when scientists exposed mice to an atmosphere enriched with either positive or negative ions. While negative ions had no negative effect on the mice, positive ions caused elevations in norepinephrine levels within one day. When exposure to positive ions was continued for longer periods, ranging from 3 to 10 days, norepinephrine levels dropped. The author noted that the results showed that “positive ions cause stress after short time application in excess. After longer exposure, a state of exhaustion can be observed in the form of a lowered norepinephrine level.” (22)

Health Benefits of Negative Ions

Just as positive ions build up in the atmosphere prior to a storm front, negative ions accumulate following a storm. This surfeit of negative ions has long been associated with improvements in mood and physical health. Research conducted in the last decade has begun to support the view that negative ions have a net positive effect on health.

One of the most tantalizing hints regarding negative ions and health surfaced when German researchers discovered a link between catecholamine regulation and lifespan after depriving experimental animals of negative ions. First, researchers at the Goldstein and Lewin Dept. of Medical Research in Stahnsdorf, Germany isolated mice and rats in air-tight, sealed acrylic cases. Next, they filtered the ambient air to remove all negative ions from the sealed cases. Their research led to the discovery that a prolonged deficiency of negative ions led to an accelerated rate of death for the experimental animals. Examination of the animals led researchers to conclude that the results ‘strongly suggest that animal death is related to disturbances in neurohormonal regulation and pituitary insufficiency. (23)

Researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow discovered that negative ions are able to help protect the body from induced physical stress. When the researchers immobilized rats and exposed them to negatively charged air ions they discovered that the ions prevented the development of pathological changes characteristic of acute stress that are observed in untreated rats. The protective action of negative air ions was observed in all the experimental animals independently of their types of behavior. (24)

British researchers at the Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences in Liverpool exposed male subjects to negative ions and measured physiological responses, including body temperature, heart rate and respiration, while at rest and during exercise. Negative ions were found to significantly improve all physiological states, particularly during rest. Most important was the finding that negative ions are “biologically active and that they do affect the body’s circadian rhythmicity.” (25)

Another clue to the role of negative ions in health comes from Russian research conducted at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in Pushchino, Russia. Researchers found that exposure to negative ions increased levels of the protective antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) in mammalian erythrocytes. The researchers also discovered minute amounts of H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide), writing, “The primary physiochemical mechanism of beneficial biological action of negative air ions is suggested to be related to the stimulation of superoxide dismutase activity by micromolar concentrations of H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide).” (26)

Summary

While progress has been made in some areas of air pollution, such as reductions in emissions of lead, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3), air pollution, particularly from particulates, remains a serious health problem. In addition to damaging the lungs and heart, air pollution is now recognized as being especially harmful to children, the elderly, and select sensitive populations, such as those afflicted with diabetes, cardiopulmonary diseases and other debilitating illnesses.

To address air pollution-related health problems a growing number of people are using personal and home air filtration products that generate negative ions to charge and precipitate airborne particulate matter for removal to create localized zones of improved air quality.

Consumer devices that utilize negative ion-generating technology have been shown to eliminate airborne pollutants, dust, cigarette smoke, pet dander, pollen, mold spores, viruses, and bacteria from the air. Negative ions have long been attributed to improvements in mood and physical health. Research supports the view that negative ions have a net positive effect on health, including improved mood, stabilized catecholamine regulation and circadian rhythm, enhanced recovery from physical exertion and protection from positive ion-related stress and exhaustion disorders.

References

1. Vrang ML, Hertel O, Palmgren F, Wahlin P, Raaschou-Nielsen O, Loft SH. Effects of traffic-generated ultrafine particles on health. Ugeskr Laeger 2002 Aug 19;164(34):3937-41.
2. Polosa R, Salvi S, Di Maria GU. Allergic susceptibility associated with diesel exhaust particle exposure: clear as mud. Arch Environ Health 2002 May-Jun;57(3):188-93.
3. Hoek G, Brunekreef B, Goldbohm S, Fischer P, van den Brandt PA.Association between mortality and indicators of traffic-related air pollution in the Netherlands: a cohort study. Lancet. 2002 Oct 19;360(9341):1184-5.
4. JAMA March 6, 2002;287:1132-1141.
5. Ulrich MM, Alink GM, Kumarathasan P, Vincent R, Boere AJ, Cassee FR.. Health effects and time course of particulate matter on the cardiopulmonary system in rats with lung inflammation. J Toxicol Environ Health A 2002 Oct 25;65(20):1571-95.
6. Ishihara Y, Kagawa J. Dose-response assessment and effect of particles in guinea pigs exposed chronically to diesel exhaust: analysis of various biological markers in pulmonary alveolar lavage fluid and circulating blood. Inhal Toxicol 2002 Oct;14(10):1049-67.
7. van Eeden SF, Hogg JC. Systemic inflammatory response induced by particulate matter air pollution: the importance of bone-marrow stimulation. J Toxicol Environ Health A 2002 Oct 25;65(20):1597-613.
8. Zanobetti A, Schwartz J. Cardiovascular damage by airborne particles: are diabetics more susceptible? Epidemiology 2002 Sep;13(5):588-92.
9. Nicolai T. Environmental air pollution and lung disease in children. Monaldi Arch Chest Dis 1999 Dec;54(6):475-8.
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The closed environment in a motor vehicle means the driver is breathing in a mixture of stale, low-oxygen air and traffic fumes. This atmosphere is already depleted of negative ions, but the conditions are exaggerated by the vehicle’s air conditioning and the discharges from the electrical system.

Adding to this, is the “Farady Cage” effect. Caused by the friction of the air over the vehicle’s chassis, a build up of positive ions is produced and can cause;

Reports from Japan, USA, Hungary and GB support these findings.

To support these theories, Bionic Products (www.negativeions.com) enlisted the help of a group of long distance truck drivers who covered an average of 3,120 kilometre’s per week. They were supplied with prototype mobile ionisers and asked to fill out a questionnaires over several weeks.

The results are as follows;

In the first such epidemiological study, researchers found that the infection rate fell to zero during the year long trial. “We were absolutely astounded to find such clear cut results,” engineer Clive Begg at the University of Leeds, UK, told New Scientist.

Stephen Dean, a consultant at the St James’s Hospital in Leeds where the trial took place says: “The results have been fantastic – so much so that we have asked the university to leave the ionisers with us.”

The ionisers produce negative air ions that collide with suspended particles and give them a charge. The scientists believe charged particles aggregate together and fall out of the air, thereby disinfecting the atmosphere and stopping the transmission of infection.

“We don’t fully understand how it is working, but we suspect it is damaging or killing the bacteria,” says Beggs. “But if the ionisers are cleaning the air in this way, we would expect to find more precipitation of acinetobacter on surfaces and this is exactly what we found.”

Antibiotic resistant

Acinetobacter infections are often very difficult to treat as the bacterium is resistant to many antibiotics. It poses no real threat to healthy humans but can cause serious infections in people with weakened immune systems.

“Ionisers may become a powerful weapon in the fight against hospital acquired infection,” says clinical microbiologist Kevin Kerr, another team member. “People had focused on getting doctors and nurses to wash their hands and had not looked at anything else.”

About 10 per cent of infections in the UK’s public hospitals have been estimated to be airborne, but Kerr says it may be even higher, as conventional methods to sample airborne bacteria are inefficient.

But although the results are very promising, he adds that further research is needed because acinetobacter infections tend to be cyclical. “They may not be seen for weeks or months and then you see a cluster of infections,” he says.

TB target

The team is currently doing more lab studies to see if other organisms may be targeted. Tuberculosis is one promising target.

Brian Duerden, director of the UK’s Public Health Laboratory Service, is encouraged by the results. “It is not the whole answer as many infections are spread by touch, but it is a potential addition to the weaponry against hospital infections,” he told New Scientist.

Source : New Scientist (January 2003) by Natasha McDowell