What Are the Dangers of Breathing Negative Ions?

Negative ions have been touted by air filter companies as extremely healthy. In nature, the ration of negatively charged ions to positively charged ions is high at beaches, mountaintops, and other places where there's "something in the air." However, breathing too many negative ions, or breathing artificially made negative ions, may be dangerous.

Ozone

• One of the primary dangers of breathing negatively charged ions that are made artificially, according to sunstar-solutions.com is that there may be ozone in the area. Ozone is three atoms of oxygen all put together, and that's one more atom than you find in the pure oxygen used by scuba divers. Ozone is actually harmful to breathe, and it can poison you if you breathe in too much of it. Machines that artificially add negative ions to the air may create ozone as a byproduct.

Sticky Particles

• If you leave an air ionizer near a surface, you'll see that over time the particles in that air will cling to the wall. This results in black stains that are sometimes referred to as "black wall" as if it was an actual, medical condition. The negatively charged particles in the air create an attraction with positively charged ones though, and this leads them to stick to things--including your lungs and throat when you inhale them, which can lead to a buildup over time and exacerbate conditions like asthma.

Lung Damage

• If you breathe artificially ionized air that contains ozone, there could be long-term effects. While natural ionized air found at a beach or near a river is healthy, the effects of ozone can poison those benefits. Lung damage can be painful, and even deadly, from breathing in too much ozone. Blisters in the lungs, blocked passages from particles, and other dangers can lead to permanent lung damage.