AIR IN DANGER
CHAPTER V
THE DAILY AERO-IONIZATION
1 - SOME SIGNIFICANT RECALLS
One of the very first things which should well be pointed out unceasingly, as well confusion settled in this connection, and was often maintained with a perfect bad faith, is " aero-ionization is not the panacea with our evils", but how for as much it is not at all a " gadget "!
I hope to have shown you throughout this work how an approach careful, rigorous, resting on known, checked and reproducible facts, allows to understand the nature and the interest of the natural electric phenomena, their impact on our medium, our organization, our behavior.
Aéro-ionization is not a panacea. But its presence is contemporary of appearance of the life on our Earth, and we saw how the life integrated it into its development and its protection. Any disturbance which will be inflicted to him will inevitably resound on the alive beings which depend on it: can we consume with impunity damaged food or polluted water? However we " consume " daily approximately fifteen kilogrammes of air with all that it contains. And we forget that we " preserve " in our respiratory tracts an average of 20 % of the micropolluants which penetrate there ...
Admittedly our organization is strongly armed to prevent the effects of this permanent invasion: immunizing protections, mucus secreted by the various mucous membranes, cilia of the trachea, contribute to bar the passage to the intruders, to trap or destroy those which continue their advance.
Yes, certainly. But provided that the attackers are too numerous, neither too virulent, nor that the means of defense are submerged...
However the daily experiment proves to us unfortunately that these conditions are too often largely exceeded and that it became urgent to protect us.
Much then believed to find this protection in a " treatment " of the air which would return its healthiness to him and we then saw spreading complex installations, expensive, which in the first time seemed to give satisfaction.
We know now that this satisfaction, the comfort brought to our place of work in particular, has a severe counterpart: the serious, real, checked and endured risk of a broad dissemination of the aérocontaminants and all the allergens, with in " premium " an increasing deterioration of the characteristics of the air thus " conditioned ".
In front of these harmful effects, and if we believe someone , would then aero-ionization be only one " gadget ", a little perverse fruit of a fashion which will pass? All, alas, is not false in this reasoning and it is only to observe flowering (generally followed by a disappearance as fast as convenient!) ionizers of all gauges... and all prices to admit that a serious ordering is essential; it is the case in particular of a higher bid disheveled on the level of the announced " performances ", with blow of thousands of billion ions emitted a second, and of " technical " assertions concerning the absolute need for a ventilator, even of a turbine, among others !
And precisely, to begin our course of the " aero-ionized good well ", let us speak about the ventilator!
I mentioned to you above than sole and good way of judging an aero-ionizer, it is to subject it to torture it with physical measurements under real conditions of operation.
Thus it was of the new apparatus, measurements having been made not only by myself, but by people or specialized organizations.
Among these very many tests, one of them transported me pleasure: it is the measurement of the time which it is necessary for this aero-ionizer to create in a given room, whatever it is, maximum permanent density of negative ions (that which will be maintained constant as long as the apparatus will function).
This completely crucial experiment is schematized on table N° XVIII.
Table 18
In the center of a large room of a volume of 150 m3 approximately (8 m length on 6 m of width and 3,20 m height) the source of negative ions is placed, the exits of the ions directed upwards.
The apparatus is shut off : the electronic probe of measurement, placed at 2,50 m of the source, records a low positive density, normal in a place of closed dwelling.
The source is then powering and the stop watch is started; the electronic probe records less than one tenth of a second later the arrival of the negative ions and in 2 seconds approximately the maximum final density is installed in the room and is recorded by the probe.
Of course, this experiment is repeated a sufficient number of times to obtain an average significant value of time . This average always was around 2 seconds, with some tenths of a second near, excellent value, which entirely confirms the total uselessness of the " engine ".
Because the same experiment was obviously made with a ionizer provided with a powerful ventilator intended to increase " very strongly " the output of the apparatus; it was of course the same ionizer with ventilator stopped during the first test.
The result is completely reassuring for the laws of physics: the differences in time of establishment of the maximum density are negligible (about 2 tenths of a second) , i.e. of the order of experimental uncertainties), while the maximum final density proves rigorously equal to that obtained without ventilator or turbine!....
A third series of experiments then enabled me to check how are distributed the ions according to the position of the openings of emissions. Once again, as well with regard to the measured final density as time necessary to its establishment, measurements confirmed as the position of the source was quasi indifferent, and this with or without ventilator
Ultimate measurement, with saying true in the form of challenge: the apparatus being laid out with his exits of ions in the direction opposed to the electronic probe, I could record the instantaneous rise of the negative density, the arrival to the maximum in less than 2,5 seconds on average. This stable maximum differed from less than 1/4 of second from the maximum observed when the exits of the ions were opposite the electronic probe .
To finish of them good once with this problem, then I made the following simple experiment : halfway between the source of ions and the electronic probe and a little behind of the line joining them, I laid out a ventilator intended " to drive out " the ion flow which could not then reach obviously more the probe (the good direction!).
Alas, alas, all that I observed was certainly a fort draught (and an undesirable mixing of dust of the vicinity...), but not the least fall of ionic density measured by the probe.
Here are experimental results impossible to circumvent that a specialized physicist, having necessary equipment, can find and check. They definitively condemn the use of the " engines " on the generators of negative ions, in so far as these generators are in conformity with the rules stated higher and thus able to ensure only the awaited result. I must add that these results relate to obviously the desired small negative ions, quasi molecular, produced by the generator used, small ions with a very great mobility.
The " large ions " that the micropolluants charged constitute, approximately thousand to ten thousand times less mobile, are contrary and obviously sensitive to the movements of the air which contains them. From there come then the majority of the harmful effects of which they are the cause, when they are dealt with by the various systems of " ventilation ", air-conditioning, etc. but we know now that it is an other history .
The conclusion to be drawn from that? It is perfectly clear. We want to ensure the cleansing of a room by charging and precipitating on the ground the micropolluants present in the air. Then let us use for that a source of ions sufficiently powerful, able to ensure this load and what follows, but let us avoid at all costs creating completely undesirable turbulences of air and the handing-over in suspension of micropolluants which we seek to eliminate!
I could add that the noise of the best ventilator is never negligible, that it can because of wear quickly become unbearable, and that its consumption of energy (wasted) reached 20 to 50 times that of the source of ions!
In is necessary it more to give up this superfluous and harmful accessory finally!
3 INTEREST? PERFORMANCES? SAFETY?
A question is often asked to me by those which consider the services of an aero-ionization become almost the ultimate recourse: " should it be used permanently and that is not likely it to present disadvantages?"
Is it still necessary to insist much to convince you of the obvious interest of a permanent aero-ionization of your environment, when this one underwent a deterioration to which you are sensitive?
All things considered, the question could be: " is it healthy and reasonable to breathe only of time to other a salubrious air, when one can breathe it permanently?"
In fact, if I believe of them the many conversations which I had on this subject, they are wholesale three concerns which seem to prevail.
Initially the harmlessness of the implementation. We saw that to date no experimentation, no prolonged use, could not highlight an unspecified harmfulness of the negative ions free from ozone whatever is the concentration or the period of validity.
Only transitory benign effects were observed at certain people: excessive tonicity and maintenance of a waking state prolonged, disorder passing yielding to a good provision of the apparatus (or with the good choice of the allure !) by the user.
The second concern is of order operational : " can aero-ionization bring a real relief to the daily harmful effects? And how long will be necessary it so that I observe a real improvement?"
It is obviously difficult to bring a peremptory answer to these questions! It's however undeniable and is today recognized that aero-ionization acts on two levels, that I briefly recall:
- on a preventive level by restoring the characteristics of a salubrious atmosphere, that it removes from its pollutants, contaminants or allergens,
- to a " curative " level, while intervening as I higher brought back on various fundamental physiological mechanisms , in particular respiratory, hormonal and immunizing.
No one among us not being able to claim itself safe from very reached coming from a degraded environment, it is undoubtedly very desirable to use a simple, effective, without harmful effect process and which, we will see it, must with the surplus be inexpensive. Nothing is opposed then to a permanent and prolonged use, of which the effects observed and felt will appear sometimes at the end of a few hours, sometimes after a few weeks, according to the nature of the disorders and the reactivity of the people concerned but also, it should definitely once again be recalled, primarily according to the qualification of the apparatus used.
As for the third concern most often recorded, it is straightforwardly practical! The price of acquisition put aside, and although it affects the decision, the mentioned problem relate to the cost of permanent implementation of the apparatus.
It is perfectly obvious that this cost of implementation grows very quickly when the generator of ions is seen equipped with additional electric devices; paradoxically, in fact such devices constitute the main part of consumption of energy!
The generator of aéro-ions which I described comprise in the " average " version (use in apartment, office, etc.) nine emitting points, maintaining in a volume 50 to 100 m3 a density ranging between 3.000 and 10.000 negative ions per Cm3 (that is to say 3 to 10 million per liter of air), depending on the position occupied in the room. Such a power ensures an energetic depollution (checked by analysis in electronic microscopy) and a complete restoration of qualities of the air, of course any ventilator being excluded!
Measured electric consumption (wattmeter) is about 25 watt-hours per day. With the average tariff (full hours, meter rental and VAT included) of 65 centimes the kilowatt-hour, the daily expenditure is thus about 1,6 centime under permanent operation (tariffs Electricity of France).
This corresponds to a monthly expenditure of approximately 50 centimes and to an annual expenditure of about 6 francs.
Now let us take the case of a generator provided with a ventilator: the working installed capacity varies from 15 to 45 Watts according to the notes of the manufacturers.
Daily consumption, under permanent operation of course, thus varies from 360 watt-hours with 1,1 kilowatt-hour, corresponding at respective cost of 24 centimes and 72 centimes.
The monthly and annual costs will thus be established respectively with 7,5 Francs and 22 Francs/month and 90 Francs and 270 Francs/year, according to the power.
Although not very high, these sums is by no means negligible, especially when they relate to a perfectly useless expenditure, to which join besides the already quoted disadvantages. I add that ventilators or turbines are mechanisms prone to wear, therefore to necessary maintenance, and possible.....and always expensive repairs.
And as only one apparatus of this type is generally insufficient to ensure the due results, the cost of implementation (of course without speaking about acquisition) can quickly become dissuasive...
To finish some with this point, it is necessary to evoke the generators of ions provided with diffusers with flavors, and consequently necessarily equipped with one if not two ventilators !
If I do not have any objection to formulate a priori against the diffusion of flavors in the air of a room, I will point out on the other hand that to want simultaneously to maintain the micro particles or the large molecules, supports of the odor, present in the air, and a flow of negative charges involving the disappearance of these same micro particles, seems a step passably absurd ! The more so as the majority of the notes concerning these apparatuses insist strongly in addition on their deodorant virtues....
Then, a good solution: a diffuser of flavors if it is wished . An aero-ionisor always useful , the thing is certain. But above all, not cohabitation!
Let us come now on another subject, whose importance seems too often neglected, even ignored: the safety of use with respect to the electric sector. A aero-ionisor is a device placed at the center of our framework of life, with permanent range of the hand, in particular of that of the children. It is thus essential that the greatest precautions are taken in order to ensure their total safety. However, as regards electrical current, a fundamental law should never be forgotten: " It is the current provided by an electric source which is cause of the danger incurred by that which is crossed by this current ".
It is thus essential that the accidental contact with an electric element of an apparatus cannot in no case to involve the immediate passage of a dangerous current for the imprudent or inattentive user.
To obtain this result, three fundamental precautions can and must be implemented, necessarily in a simultaneous way.
- a very high insulation of the active part of the generator of ions with respect to the alternative network. This result is easily obtained by using a transformer " of entry " comprising two windings (primary and secondary circuits) separated and strongly insulated . It is there a completely fundamental safety member, unfortunately violated deliberately by the majority of the manufacturers of apparatuses of small prices. Because I have personally undergone the very unpleasant effects of them, and because I have received testimonies of severely concussed people, I insist in a categorical way on this point . I add besides that I am very surprised by the absence of any official control in this field, whereas exist and are applied for less " sensitive " materials severe rules as regards safety of the electrical appliance.
This safety " upstream " being ensured, two means are at our disposal to ensure the safety " in aval" : limitation of the current, self-checking of the tension.
- the limitation of the current delivered with the " points " by the source of very high voltage to a maximum of a tenth of milliampere, will ensure the perfect protection of the user, including very young child.
- the self-checking of the source of very high voltage will make it possible to obtain a quasi instantaneous fall of the T.H.T. in the event of " excessive " flow, resulting for example from the contact of the user with one of the " points ". This voltage drop will also involve the quasi instantaneous fall of the current as a long time as the accidental contact or the short-circuit will last.
As soon as the incident ceases, the source of T.H.T. will find its normal operation, without to have suffered the least damage in this circumstance .
The simultaneous use of these three solutions then brings a not easily surpass able safety factor , making it possible of this fact to have " open " ionic sources of great power, therefore of high effectiveness.
The purchaser of a generator of negative ions must require thus all the guarantees that such safety requirements (in conformity with the current standards of the C.E.E.) are undoubtedly respected, and to obtain the written evidence and the insurance from it : one is never too careful with electricity, you can believe me!
A last word on this point, in order to answer the question that you will not fail to pose to you, when having accidentally touched the point of the one of these apparatuses (I do not believe in voluntaries!) you will have tested the small pinching and the feeling, moreover not very pleasant, well-known.
The intensity of the feeling, extremely localized, results not from the value of the current, but owing to the fact that it enters by an extremely weak skin surface, and that it excites the local nervous terminations thus highly, but without being able to cause the least damage.
The nuisance will thus result primarily from surprised and will make the user more attentive!
To be complete in this review of the essential characteristics of a generator of negative ions, one cannot forget one of them which, though fundamental, is almost always the object of an inaccuracy or an extremely suspect blur; it is the real power of the apparatus, i.e. its capacity to maintain the density ionic necessary in a room of given size and destination .
The value of the asserted " power " depending alas on the conditions of his measurement, I thus took many measurements of electronic flow of a point placed in various configurations.
Very quickly a reality without kindness was essential: the measured " density " with 1 or 2 cm of the point does not have any physical meaning, and involves quasi a short-circuit: I specified it well besides to you by evoking the existence of " plasma " located ahead and around this point. The density then measured under the real conditions of use (remotely from 1 to 3 m of the source) falls in a ratio of more than 1000 to 1, transforming the ionisor " of shock " into sad and expensive gadget...!
Here still, the user will have to require during the acquisition of the apparatus not an assertion as free as thundering - in " thousands of billion ions emitted by the points " but, more modestly and more surely, the actual value of the ionic density, measured on the one hand in " Faraday screen room " (real total flow of the points), on the other hand in standard room at increasing distances from the source (up to 2 m).
Then only the apparatus will be credible and its preserved user of cruel disappointments...
Must one recall finally that to be reliable and usable without severe nuisances or disorders by the most sensitive people, an aero-ionisor will have of course to produce neither ozone nor oxides of nitrogen ....
I indeed lengthily maintained you, in a preceding chapter, very big problem of atmospheric ozone. I will thus not return there, if not to again insist on the peremptory necessity to avoid his production at rates higher than those of the most salubrious atmospheres . But we should well be understood !
There are two ways of measuring the ozone rate produced by a aero-ionisor:
- in the " average " atmosphere surrounding the apparatus, therefore to 2 or 3 meters of the emissive points,
- at the " exits " of the negative ions, therefore with a few centimeters of the emissive points, where precisely the ozone and the oxides of nitrogen occur .
It is easy to understand that the real rates of ozone, produced in each case for the same measured rate, will differ from a considerable factor of the only fact of dilution in volume!
Here still, a long experiment, comprising the participation of particularly sensitive people, proved to me that only significant measurement was obviously to be made at the exits of the ions. In this case, the verdict of the analysis of the air completely confirmed that of the observer breathing during several hours this same air ionized with a score of centimeters of the apparatus.
And if you are legitimately curious about the technique of analysis, will know that there is only one of them, bringing all the guarantees of reliability and safety: it is the " chimio-luminescence " which exploits the emission of light characteristic of a special substance in the presence of ozone. It is the most significant method, but of difficult use, reserved for the detection of very weak ozone traces. The limit of sensitivity is about 2 ppB i.e. 0,002 ppM, lower than that which one finds in the air more healthy : it is that which the new ioniseurs mentioned above ensure, checked by an accredited Official test establishment, thus satisfying the most severe requirements for harmlessness under permanent operation.
Here still, the user will have thus never to be satisfied of a vague indication ("international standards "... at 0,05 ppM, limit of the danger ! !), but to require a precise statement of the measurements made at the exits of the ions using an approved equipment whose manufacturer of ioniseurs will have to provide the precise references
In all the cases, these are severe nuisances to come that the user will have thus avoided!
4 - A VERY ORDINARY USE
We finally arrived here at the end of this long course ! All things considered, the last questions which you could ask me would be: " And now, how will be used all that and simply will breathe ?! "
Oh well by observing the few practical rules that here, in answer to your questions.
1 - Which apparatus to choose?
- You were inattentive in the course of reading! Thus take again this work in the first page and, this time, you do not let disturb!
2 - I now have a qualified apparatus: which volume of air will I be able to treat?
- the apparatus referred to above makes it possible to treat a room of a volume ranging between about thirty m3 and a hundred m3, i.e. a room, an office, a show, a part of stay, several contiguous parts whose doors of communication are opened, the apparatus being placed in the most central part, etc.
And if this fork from 30 to 100 m3 worries you, remember the properties of the ions. If the volume is small, the walls are close, the capture is strong and the density reduced; if volume is large, the walls moved away, the capture is weaker and the density increased. It is thus established a true self-regulation of the negative density present which thus allows the use of the same apparatus for a wide range of volumes of buildings.
3 - Volume to be treated clearly exceeds 100 m3. Do I have to use a more powerful apparatus?
- Not ! Indeed, in this case, the density is likely to be very strong in the vicinity of the apparatus, without any utility. It is the same problem as that of lighting by only one source, very powerful but plugging and inevitably leaving corners of shade, or by several sources judiciously distributed.
The same applies in aero-ionization: it is always preferable to have two, even several sources of negative ions, when volumes to be treated are significant. Thus one is ensured to profit in all sites from a sufficient and homogeneous negative density.
4 - And now, in which precise place to install an aero-ionizator? There are " defended " places?
- It is always desirable to lay out the apparatus in the vicinity of the center of the room to be treated; thus one will obtain a homogeneous distribution of burdens and the best output, with the minimal " losses ". Moreover, the micro pollutants having to gain the ground as fast as possible, the apparatus will be placed preferably enough close to this one: a low shelf, nonmetal will be an excellent support. And precisely, it will be necessary for possible avoiding the proximity of conducting metal surfaces: never not to pose the ionizator on a central heating radiator for example (without any danger, but awkward!)
However, in quite particular cases, the apparatus could be laid out according to a definite need: in bedside of bed for a " cure of falling asleep " intensive, at the foot of the bed of baby for the most excellent cleansing than one can hope.
In fact, it is generally the layout of the premises which will dictate the choice of the site, under the only reserves which I expressed.
5 - Does the apparatus have to function permanently?
- to refer to question 1 and its answer !
6 - What do it occur at the time of the comings and goings outside and when one opens the windows to air?
- a completely transitory fall of ionic density, immediately compensated, which thus prohibits neither displacements nor ventilation.
7 - Can one leave an apparatus under permanent operation in a bedroom ?
- A priori without any harmful effect, as we know it, quite to the contrary.
Indeed, during the sleep, breathing slowed down in frequency and in-depth involves a fall of the gaseous exchange on the level of the air cells; the presence of ionized oxygen then makes it possible to correct this adverse effect perfectly, and ensure in the majority of the cases an excellent falling asleep and a regular and repairing sleep. It is what the result of very many experiments proves henceforth.
With this close however that certain " hyper tonic " people do not accept a strong negative density after the period of falling asleep . The apparatus could then be laid out with profit and without disadvantage in a corridor serving the room or a contiguous part whose door remains open... or regulated on " the good " pace with the provided order !
And for the unconditional ones of technology, there are programmers making it possible to energize the apparatus with selected intervals of their choice. It will be thus possible to ensure in night periods a judicious distribution of negative ions in the form of successive " puffs " not involving a premature waking !
Here still, and provided that the fundamental rules of use are complied with, it is the user who will discover the methods of application quickly producing the best results to him.
8 - Which are the conditions of maintenance of the apparatus? Can I ensure it?
- the absence of ventilator will make it possible to avoid the major part of the clogging of the apparatus. You will observe, with the passing months, the appearance of traces of stains on the external case; a no fluffy dry rag will make it possible to clean dirtied surfaces. On the other hand, one will not have in no case to use aggressive organic solvents (trichlorethylene, acetone, gasoline, etc).
The cleaning of the exits of ions of the apparatus will be done using a vacuum cleaner provided with a soft brush.
9 - Is it necessary to carry out periodically the replacement of " worn " emissive points ?
- Not, these points are in fact genuine needles in conformity with the requirements of a maximum electron emission. Make of a stainless alloy, they thus have a long " lifespan " (several years of continuous operation). Only an aggressive atmosphere will be able to involve the need for exchange of the points, but to intervals of about a year at least.
It is only recommended to withdraw the fine dust which settles on their end, at the end of a few months, using a cotton on a stem, delicately wiped on the needle in an alternate rotational movement.
10 - What does it happen in the event of accidental fall of liquid on the apparatus?
- Nothing good engraves in the worst case! The significant electric parts of the apparatus are protected by the case and a quasi inalterable insulating varnish. The entry of a small quantity of water will thus not have a consequence if so is operated: to disconnect the apparatus, to turn over it downwards resulting and to balance it to drive out water. To wait until it is quite dry. To give under tension. In more " the bad case", the gauged fuse of protection whose apparatus is provided will ensure the immediate cut of the current. This fuse, inaccessible to the user for imperative reasons of safety, will be checked complete and exchange in factory after return of the apparatus.
11 - Is the presence of a aero-ionisor compatible with that of house plants?
- Question which is often asked to me... by the housewives, anxious of the fate reserved for their dear plantations! Oh well, Ladies, be fully reassured. Not only there is not any incompatibility (think of nature which surrounds you!), but a very long experiment, made by myself and much of other amateurs of " winter gardens ", proves with the obviousness that the negative ionization of the ambient air confers on the plants present and their flowers a strength, a glare and a duration properly surprising. Only one exception to this rule: certain " desert " fatty plants obviously seem to prefer an environment neutral or positive, undoubtedly conforms to that of their natural habitat. It will be easy for you to give them satisfaction!
12 - Is the presence of a aero-ionisor compatible with that of the familiar electronic materials, such as hi-fi system, television set, microcomputer, etc?
- Not only it is compatible, but by the restoration of the usual properties of the air which it brings, negative aero-ionization cancels the effects often very harmful of positive electrostatic charge acquired or emitted by the many plastic components of these materials. In the particular case of the screens of the television sets or video-data processing, we know that the injection of positive ions in the air surrounding these devices is fought perfectly and its effects cancelled by a sufficient injection of negative ions. It is to say that the presence of a aero-ionisor is particularly recommended in this circumstance.
13 - A aero-ionisor can it fight the presence of fume (tobacco, etc.) or of unpleasant odors?
- I failed to return you to the question N° 1! How it is far now, I answer you!
Of course, since in both cases, they are microparticles suspended in the air and which tend to remain there. Particles of tar (somewhat cancerogenic....) and of residues of combustion for the tobacco smoke, micro particle of aerosols or aggregate of large " odorous " molecules in the case of the " odors ", these various undesirable elements will acquire a negative charge ensuring their repulsion, then their precipitation on the ground. In this precise case, it could be necessary to have a power of significant emission, involving the implementation of a type of equipment especially adapted and of course available.
It should henceforth be remembered that any particle liquid or solid in suspension in the atmosphere, that it is mineral, chemical, bacterial, viral, fungic, etc. is constantly likely to acquire an electric charge of our choice and, from there, to see itself imposing a behavior which does not depend any more only on this charge and the local electric conditions . These various effects were checked on several occasions in laboratories of physics, and recently by an expert organization, specialized in measurements of atmospheric micropollution, with which it equipment describes here had been entrusted for the analysis of its action. The results obtained completely confirm all until we could wait.
14 - Last question: is negative aero-ionization compatible with the continuation of a medical treatment, or are there counter-indications?
- With more than sixty years of retreat, one to date knows no counter-indication proven with the simultaneous use of a generally chemiotherapic medication and negative aero-ionization. Conversely, the use of the negative ions can bring a substantial if not decisive help to medications in progress. It can be by adding their own effects, already exposed, which make it possible to reduce the amounts and to shorten the setting time, except of course the case of drugs whose amount necessary is imperatively fixed: it is the particular case of antibiotics, for example.
It can be also while acting on the side effects, sometimes almost as awkward as the affection as it is necessary to treat, a typical example is that of psychotropic (tranquillizers, etc.) certain side effects are indeed awkward even dangerous in certain circumstances (the loss of vigilance or a certain confusion, among others).
Lastly, in extreme cases, one will observe effects specific to the negative ions which are equivalent strictly to those of molecules of drugs: it is for example an action anti-inflammatory drug via the cerebral serotonin rate and the effect on the obstinate migraines ; it is also the action on the bronchial mucous membrane in infantile cases of obstinate asthma , that the usual vasodilators do not manage any more to contain. It is in fact a quite long list of evils or affections that negative aéro-ionization makes it possible to relieve, almost always on the whole, sometimes completely. But I repeat, once again, that we have by no means here a panacea, a kind of miracle cure for all our evils, and that wisdom and measurement are essential, so that imposes also a technique rich with possibilities.
5 - THE ULTIMATE DEBATE...
Always present if not current, this debate results from a fact of experiment as old as the atmosphere: the extreme smallness of the ionic concentration of this one.
Remember: one liter of air contains approximately 2,5.10 22 molecules of oxygen and nitrogen, i.e. the number 25.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 molecules, i.e. 25 thousand billion of billion!
Do you want an idea of this number? If you want to count the molecules contained in a small cubic centimeter of air (i.e. thousandths of liter), at a rate of 5 a second, which supposes a pretty dexterity, you would be with work during approximately 170.000 billion years! The universe having incipient here approximately 15 billion years, if you had begun the calculation with its birth, you would really not be at the end of your sorrows. Useless to add that to measure this number, the physicists did not use this method, sure but a little slow!
Let us return to our liter of air. We saw that it contains on average between one and two million molecules ionized for 2.10 22 molecules, either approximately a molecule ionized for 10 16 neutral molecules (or 10 Million Billion). It is undoubtedly very little, as you will see it, but however by no means negligible....
Take cubic bricks (odd, but convenient for our experiment!) from 1 dm of edge (that is to say 0, 10 m), therefore of a volume of 1 dm3 or 1 liter. And now... courage! You will constitute of it a gigantic cube whose square base will have approximately 25 km on side and of course 25 km height ("the large " pyramid of Khéops is a molehill !!). When you finish the cube, you will have piled up there with few things close 2.10 16 , i.e. 20 million billion cubic bricks. Oh well, the ionized " brick ", finally the ionized molecule of our liter of air, will be represented by only one brick for example of color different, will be placed some share inside the cube and walking there freely. As much to say that if you want to find it, bricks will probably have " to be stirred up "! Indeed....
It is that, the real scale of the ionization of the air. Oh certainly, in certain cases, the density will be up to 100 or 1000 times higher, which will enable us to disperse a few hundreds of bricks " ionized " in our large cube, without this one appearing disturbed about it.
Seemingly only . Because I believe well to have drawn your attention to the hugeness of the electric forces and their aptitude to be appeared even at long distances Placed in its " neutral cube " whose bricks are to some extent " obscure " from the electric point of view, our " ionized " brick will be the equivalent of a source of intense " light "... and for a physicist this comparison is extremely realistic and exciting!
And that changes everything ! Finished the anonymity of our " brick-light " lost among her obscure sisters: it will be locatable, identifiable, acting, even and especially in the middle of an inert and black ocean .
Undoubtedly start you to have a presentiment of what, in nature, can mean " little ", " much ", " near ", " far ", and the extraordinarily relative character of these words, too hung on our human scale.
Now, I will illustrate this example of the brick cube by a well-known fact of the biologists: it is the search of the female of the butterfly of the silkworm by the male, when comes the period from coupling.
At this time, certain specialized cells of the abdomen of the female secrete a chemical substance a little similar to a hormone, which is volatile and will be diluted in the surrounding atmosphere. Secretion relates to thousandth milligram dispersed in tens or hundreds of thousands of m 3 of ambient air . Final concentration of the hormone (which one names " attractant") will be on average lower than that of ionization reaching a molecule for 10 17 molecules of air!
That then gives us a cubic-molecule of attractant in a " large cube " of 40 km side approximately.
Well ! that does not prevent male Bombyx Mori (thus names the butterfly of the silkworm) from recognizing the single molecule present then her sisters and " to go up " to the female for the bridal parade!
Do you want another example? It is that of the retina of our eyes. Its sensitivity is extraordinary, like the facts which follow will show it to you.
By one night perfectly obscure, you let your retina rest lengthily (between 30 and 60 minutes of complete darkness) so that it acquires its maximum sensitivity.
If the night is clear and the air not polluted, you will be able to perfectly distinguish the light of a candle lit at a distance of 20 km . The light thus received is approximately 40.000 billion times weaker than that received by an identical element of your retina, by one afternoon shone upon on the beach .
It corresponds physically on arrival from 1 to 2 " photons " a second, these tiny " grains of light " imagined by Einstein, that our retina transforms, after an enormous amplification, in an electric signal conveyed by the optic nerve to the brain. It is him which finally will interpret this signal like the arrival of an extraordinarily weak spark, but perceptible.
Why these two examples, relating to very different fields? Because they see implementing quantities of energy and forces considerably smaller than those which aero-ionization brings into play . In spite of that and in spite of all the objections of principle, the facts are, irrecusably there: the butterfly " feels " the molecule of attractant, the eye " sees " the light of the candle.
On the other hand, our organization does not comprise sensory sensors (like the sight, touch) enabling us to identify an ion present in the atmosphere, although energies and the electric forces brought into play at the time of the interactions with this organization are enormous and can most probably involve considerable effects... or may be because of that !
But it was not expected that we can " see " the ions! Moreover, with the fact, do we see x-rays or the waves of the radio? They exist however undoubtedly, with their own effects, which we moreover discovered only little by little by the means of the physics, and which we are still far from knowing completely.
All that I could add, inter alia, the example of the hormones, these complex molecules charged to convey information and orders with the various bodies concerned. They are neutral electrically, their properties depend on certain sometimes negligible details of their architecture, without we still knowing why it is thus. It is certain however that these molecules act with concentrations close to those which we have just seen, and which no one cannot dispute any more this fact .
The atmospheric ions are charge carrier free, and this makes them capable of actions immensely higher than those of the neutral molecules. These effects will depend obligatorily on the sign of this charge; they could not never be identical , even if they are not necessarily opposed . And these effects will be particularly intense on the spot where exist normally significant charge distributions : the surface of the membranes of all our cells, in particular those which ensure our relationships to the atmosphere.
It is precisely the case of our cutaneous surface and the mucous membranes papering the whole of the respiratory tree, which are thus the privileged site of exchanges where the charge of the ions is present and inevitably exploits the role reserved for any electric charge on its environment.
All things considered, and to finish some, one could once again state this strange paradox: acting with close concentrations
- the hormones, electrically neutral, exert an action fundamental and recognized, by means that we are unaware of still almost completely;
- the ions of the atmosphere, carrying a considerable net electric charge , capable of intense effects for short distances, purposes which we know, and know to envisage, would be present only " by chance " and would not play of this fact only little or not role.
This last proposal, perfectly contrary with all that the physicists know, observe, measure, shows simply how much the life sciences must henceforth integrate the observational sciences, physics in particular, to open with a real comprehension of the alive world, and to leave thus the era of empiricism and prejudice.
It is a long-term company, roughcast difficulties, obstacles, often of disappointments and false hopes.
But, like the life, it is wonderful !
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