AIR IONIZATION IN FACTORIES This field is of direct concern to the institutes of labor protection, hygiene, and occupational diseases. Air ionization is of special importance in workshops and factories with high concentration of dust particles of various origins that might endanger health or carry a positive electrical charge. Air ionization facilitates control of air pollution in factories and workshops because the negative ions are always discharged at the top of the building (irrespective of its size and volume) while the ground is always under a positive potential. Without this, complete purification, or steri lization of air is impossible. The mechanism of this phenomenon is very simple. The airborne dust particles or microorganisms are charged by the negative ions to a certain potential, and move in the electric field toward the positive pole along the field's lines of force. The experiments we conducted during 1933-1942 demonstrated beyond doubt this remarkable property of negative air ions, obtained with the effluvial ionization method. Engineer N. D. Kiselev in 1954-1957, physician T. S. Timurziev in 1956 1957, microbiologist-physician E. Yu. Zuikova, and Engineer A. I. Frank in 1958-1961 fully confirmed the possibility of successfully controlling dust and microorganisms in public buildings, workshops, and factories.
Moreover, it was proved experimentally by Kiselev that the same method could be applied to the removal of dust and other aerosols from the vast amount of gases discharged into the atmosphere through the chimneys of various factories. Purification of polluted air in industrial cities, one of the most important problems in hygiene, might be successfully solved by installing air-ionizing units in factory chimneys.*
The manufacture of semiconductors and electronic appliances requires a high degree of air purity. Air conditioners may supply very pure air to the workshops, but the air thus treated is totally devoid of oxygen ions. People working in this air tire easily, do not feel well, and lose their power of concentration and ability to work, resulting in a high percentage of production rejects. In this case too, air ions should benefit the workers.
In certain industries friction of machinery parts generates large static charges which interfere with work, and which might be neutralized by air ions, all having the same charge.
Regular campaigns should be initiated against several pulmonary dis eases (such as pneumoconiosis and silicosis) induced in miners by dust. It has been proved that negative air ions stimulate the cilia of the epithe lium lining the surface of the upper respiratory tract, increase mucuous secretion, and also improve the tonus of smooth muscles. Thus, these ions facilitate ejection of dust particles from the respiratory system. Positive air ions markedly inhibit these functions, and may lead to the injurious, permanent deposition of dust in the lungs, and consequently to premature invalidism. These problems should be given immediate attention by the appropriate institutes; air ionization must be introduced promptly in the mining industry, as the author has already done at the Karaganda coal basin.