Briiv with moss and plants in the background

What's the deal with ozone?

With enough fear mongering online, it's understandable why you'd want to make sure your air purifier isn't actually causing more harm than good. With Briiv, there's no need to worry. 

Briiv doesn’t use an ionizer and doesn’t generate ozone, and its use of natural materials makes it the most sustainable air filter on the market. 

The unit itself is comprised of a bio-plastic base and filter housing, the nano-matrix filter which sits in a card container, the moss filter and coconut filter which are placed in the glass, and the internal electronics. These internals are a fan, which is similar to the kind of fan in a computer or laptop, and two PCBs (printed circuit boards) which control Briiv. 

While we haven't performed ozone testing for Briiv, none of the components which make up the filter are known to be ozone producers. As mentioned in a few different articles (1, 2), ground level ozone can be created when VOCs react together in the presence of heat and light. VOCs are actually one of the pollutants which can be captured by Briiv in the nano-matrix filter which sits inside the Briiv and as the unit is low power it doesn't product heat, so neither are present for such a reaction to occur. Also on a side note here, these reactions normally take place in the upper atmosphere not at ground level where the air is thicker; this means you're unlikely to be affected by such reactions in your home. 

We recommend that the nano matrix filter is changed every three months, so the VOCs are regularly disposed of along with the other pollutants in the nano-matrix.

The California Air Resources board performed a study of household appliances which are marketed as producing ozone, as well as products which may produce ozone as a by-product. Of the household air purifiers that were tested, both were advertised as generating negative ions. Neither were found to product significant levels of ozone. These are probably the most comparable to Briiv as air purifiers, however Briiv does not produce any negative ions.

Infographic showing the pollutants that the Briiv air filter can absorb - harmful gasses; harmful ,fine particulates; dirt, dust and smoke; pollen and allergens, such as pet dander.

The significant difference here is between the 'purification' properties of air purifiers, whether that involves ozone or negative ions, versus filtration properties. Briiv cleans the existing air by filtering out pollutant particles, rather than purifying the air through chemical reactions. 

Negative ion generators are a physical electronic component within products that we don't have inside of Briiv. They tend to look like little solid blocks that have what looks like a brush sticking out of one side. These little devices can often be spotted on other air purifiers as the little brush is where the ions and Ozone are produced, and these can be seen poking out into the air flow!

All of the filtration in Briiv takes place on a physical level; the same air that goes into the filter is pushed out, just without additional polluting particles! You can read a bit more about what and how Briiv filters here.  

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