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A storm of controversy materializes over ions

It's hard enough to shun sugar, fat and carbs. Now retailers are directing our attention to an invisible bogeyman: the positive ion. In layman's terms, ions - both positive and negative - are electrically charged particles (atoms or molecules) found in the air. Positive ions have been blamed for physical and emotional health problems, while negative ions have been credited with curing everything from depression to asthma, chronic pain to bad hair. The retail translation: Hawkers of jewelry, lamps, hair dryers, facial saunas, air purifiers and water filters are making remarkable ion-related claims. "The 'negative ion' is the vitamin of fresh outdoor air," says an online ad for a lamp called the E-On Light, which purportedly purifies air by generating negative ions, which collide with unhealthy airborne particles and imbue them with negative charges. Eventually, the particles become heavy and fall to the floor, vanquished. "The reason we feel invigorated when we visit clean mountains, forests and crashing waterfalls is that we are exposed to heightened amounts of negative ions in the air," says the ad. Scott Goode teaches chemistry at the University of South Carolina. He was unimpressed by the ad's claims. "I think they're bogus," he said, "because every time you create one type of ion, you create another type of ion. If you do something to create negative ions, at some location pretty close by you're going to create an equal number of positive ions. Any light that produces negative ions has to produce the same number of positive ions." But, he added, a person can generate a small beam of ions, and sometimes they'll attach themselves to other particles, such as pollutants. In fact, that's how some utility companies control pollutants - they use a device called an electrostatic precipitator, which puts charges on nasty things like sulfur dioxide. But in science as everywhere else, there's no such thing as a free lunch, so anything that destroys pollutants will also do a number on plastics and elastics. "The particles don't know if it's a pollutant or the elastic band in your running shorts," Goode said. But this kind of lamp, he said, does make the house smell clean. He said that, while some ionized air purifiers have helped those with allergies, the air most of us breathe is neutral. "It has as many positive as negative charges," he said. "You have to get down to (measurements) on the scale of an electron microscope before you can discern which parts of the air are positive and which are negative." Negative-ion claims go beyond the air we breathe. Makers of the Q-Ray ionized bracelet ($49.95-$249.95) claim it "restores the body to its normal electrical balance the natural way, thereby reducing pain!" But an article by Dr. Stephen Barrett on www.quackwatch. org (a site dedicated to exposing snake-oil salesmen) calls the Q-Ray "preposterous." "There is no such thing as an 'ionized bracelet,' because solid objects are not ionized," he wrote.