Air Ions: their Possible Biological Significance and Effects

Abstract

Although men have known of atmospheric electricity and have speculated on its biological effects for hundreds of years, only recently have scientific technique and theory advanced to the point where one can perform really meaningful experiments. the study of air ions, positively and negatively charged molecular clusters of varying size, mobility and chemical composition, has comprised a large fraction of this research. Even so, well controlled studies of the environmental levels or of the actual effects of air ions seem relatively few and far between. Studies of the natural environment have indicated levels of small air ions of up to 10⁴/cm³, with a ratio of about 1/1 between the positive and negative species except under special circumstances. Well-documented effects of experimentally produced ions (of usually one polarity) include the killing of bacteria, accelerated growth in plants and insects, and physiological and behavioral changes in animals and man. theorists have proposed both chemical and electrical mechanisms by which air ions have their effects, both of which require some sort of an amplification mechanism by which air ions can trigger a response proportionately far greater than the original stimulus. However, at the present time these proposed mechanisms have little experimental support, and future work will have to determine the actual pathways of air ion action.