Ozone Safety and Ventilation: Read This First

If you have inhaled ozone and have trouble breathing, chest pain or feel faint: get to fresh air and call emergency services, or Poison Control on 1-800-222-1222 in the US.

Ozone is not something to breathe

The property that makes ozone useful, its reactivity, is exactly what makes it damaging to lung tissue. Exposure can cause throat irritation, coughing, chest tightness, shortness of breath and lung inflammation. Repeated exposure is worse than a single event.

You can smell ozone well below harmful levels, which is a useful warning. If you can smell it, ventilate. Do not treat a familiar smell as a safe one, your nose fatigues and stops registering it long before the risk goes away.

Ventilation in practice

• Work in a well-ventilated space, ideally with a window open or extraction running.
• Vent the headspace of any vessel through an ozone destruct unit where you can, especially on long runs.
• Never run in a sealed room, a cupboard, a small bathroom, a car, or anywhere people or animals sleep.
• Do not lean over a vessel to look or smell while it is running.
• Keep people, children and pets out of the area during operation.
• Leave the room ventilating after you finish. Ozone lingers.

Oxygen brings its own hazards

An oxygen-enriched atmosphere makes everything burn faster and hotter.

• Keep oxygen equipment completely free of oil and grease. Hydrocarbons plus oxygen can ignite violently. Never lubricate an oxygen fitting.
• No flames, sparks, heaters or smoking anywhere near the setup.
• Secure cylinders upright. A dropped cylinder with a damaged valve becomes a projectile capable of going through a wall.
• Use an oxygen-rated regulator with the right flow range, and check for damage before each use.
• Close the cylinder valve when not in use.

Electrical and general handling

• Keep the unit dry. Water and high voltage do not mix.
• Use the correct voltage. Check before plugging in abroad.
• Inspect tubing before each use. Perished tubing leaks ozone into the room.
• Do not modify the equipment or bypass safety features.
• Store out of reach of children.

If something goes wrong

• Ozone exposure: get to fresh air immediately. Persistent coughing, chest pain or breathlessness means medical attention, not waiting it out.
• Suspected leak: shut off the oxygen supply at the cylinder, power down, ventilate, then inspect.
• Fire near oxygen: do not approach to shut the valve if it is unsafe. Evacuate and call emergency services, and tell them oxygen is involved.

Your responsibility

Buying this equipment means accepting responsibility for operating it safely, which is set out in full in section 7 of our Terms. Anyone else who uses your equipment needs to know this too.

Equipment safety information only. Nothing here is medical advice, and these are not FDA-approved medical devices.