What good things does ozone do?

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On one hand, long wave ultraviolet light striking the skin produces natural vitamin D in the body, which helps metabolize calcium into bone tissue. On the other hand, short wave ultraviolet light is ionizing radiation which can produce skin cancer.

On the ground level, ozone is a respiratory irritant, and can aggravate the respiratory tract and also asthmatic conditions.

Ozone will do everything that oxygen will do, and some things that it won't. It is a powerful oxidizer and is much more powerful than oxygen alone.

There are some adherents to alternative medicine who claim many "cures" using ozone. However, there appear to be legitimate medical uses for ozone; see the Related Link.

Other uses

It purifies water--most of the bottled water you see says "purified by ozonation" on it. They use an air stone (or eductor) to bubble ozone through the water, and the ozone kills any organisms that might be living there. Eductors are today more commonly used to apply ozone to drinking water, since eductors do not provide tiny difficult to clean pores in a drinking water system like diffuser stones do. They also provide the possibility of applying ozone into pressurized systems.

Ozone is applied into sewer manholes, where it dissolves grease (along with water vapor) and destroys odors (however briefly).

Ozone is applied to municipal water (in some cases), where it will destroy pharmaceuticals, destroy taste and odor, make organic molecules easier for activated cabon to destroy, sterilize the water, and act as a flocculant (agglomeration of contaminant molecules that can settle or filter more easily).

In organic synthetic chemistry, ozone is used in as a reagent in ozonolysis reaction that oxidize a carbon double to two aldehydes. Very useful reaction but kinda dangerous.

First answer by Tigr. Last edit by OzoneGuy. Contributor trust: 20 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 87 [recommend question]