Sharp Air Purifier Review ? Efficacy of Plasmacluster Ion Technology

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!A little dynamo best describes the�heart of Plasmacluster Ion technology. Continuing our Sharp air purifier review, we bring into focus the high concentration Plasmacluster Ion generator. Measuring only 57mm by 28.5mm by 15.5mm, the little gadget produces the critical reactive agents.
Plasmacluster Ion Generator

Overview of Plasmacluster Ion Technology
By the application of positive and negative voltages to discharge electrodes in the Plasmacluster Ion generator, plasma is formed. Plasma is often described as the fourth state of matter after solid, liquid and gas. It is a partially ionized gas-like state wherein some electrons are free and not bound to an atom or molecule. Natural water molecules in the plasma are decomposed into positive hydrogen ions and negative oxygen ions. Other water molecules in the air cluster around the hydrogen ions and oxygen ions forming the distinctive and stable Plasmacluster Ions. Upon contact with the surfaces of pathogens, Plasmacluster Ions are transformed into hydroxyl radicals which are highly reactive but unstable. This characteristic causes the hydroxyl to combine with hydrogen atoms on the surface membrane of the pathogen. The result; a disabled pathogen and a harmless by-product, water. Simply perfect! But is it real?
Plasmacluster Ion ? Fact or Fiction?
A serious Sharp air purifier review cannot avoid asking the inevitable ? are Plasmacluster Ions fact or fiction? As with many other products rapidly emerging from the field of nanotechnology, Plasmacluster Ions are invisible to the naked eye. And the individual air purifier user has no means to verify its authenticity. One obvious verification method is to view the results of using Plasmacluster Ions. This is done in 2 ways, in the laboratory (efficacy test) and in the real world (efficiency test).
An established corporate player with a long track record of successes, Sharp has anticipated these concerns. It has developed to an art what they term as academic marketing. This is the collaborative research approach to product marketing, whereby the effectiveness of Plasmacluster Ion technology is verified based on scientific data developed in conjunction with leading academic research institutions. The data forms the basis of new products introduced to the market. Sharp has fine-tuned the definition of effectiveness into efficacy and efficiency. Between 2000 and July 2009, it focused on efficacy testing. It has begun and is developing efficiency testing with end users of Plasmacluster Ion technology.
Plasmacluster Ion ? Authentication at Cellular Level
Digging deeper for this Sharp air purifier review, we found that Sharp had gone beyond the typical efficacy and efficiency tests of the industry. On 17 November 2004, Sharp announced the results of studies by Professor Gerhard Artmann of the Department of Cell Biophysics and Bioengineering, University of Applied Sciences, Germany. A leading authority in the field of cellular engineering, Professor Artmann through the use of an electron microscope found that Plasmacluster Ions damaged more than 60 protein types on the cell membrane of pathogens leading to inactivation of the cells (both bacteria and viruses were tested).
Another significant finding was that Plasmacluster Ions do not penetrate the pathogen cell membrane to impact the cell DNA. This is claimed as an advantage over other air purification technologies like those using ultra-violet light which rely on DNA destruction to work. The risk of UV light exposing�users to cancer from DNA damage was subtly implied.
Plasmacluster Ion ? Efficacy Tests
This current Sharp air purifier review highlights the efficacy tests that Sharp has conducted, together with several organizations, on various pathogens. Conducted over the years from September 2000 to July 2009, the tests have proven that Plasmacluster Ions are effective in removing 28 kinds of harmful airborne microorganisms. The most significant of pathogens are the deadly SARS virus, the virulent H5N1 avian flu virus, an earlier variant of the H1N1 virus which recently re-surfaced in Mexico and MRSA, the notorious bacterium responsible for difficult-to-treat infections in hospital patients.
Other viruses which have been destroyed by Plasmacluster Ions include coxsackie virus (causes colds), feline coronavirus, polio virus. Equally susceptible have been bacteria like serrata bacterium, enterococcus, staphylococcus, sarcina, micrococcus, bacillus subtilis, pseudomonas, escherichia coli, white staphylococcus and candida. Mites, mite dust (dead mites and mite feces), allergens and pollen have also been effectively dealt with together with fungi like cladosporium, aspergillus, penicillium, stachybotrys, alternaria, mucor and aspergillus.
The organizations, some of which conducted multiple tests, were:
- Harvard School of Public Health, USA
- Retroscreen Virology, Ltd., London, UK
- Asthma Society of Canada
- University of L�beck, Germany
- CT&T, Aachen University of Applied Science, Germany
- Seoul University, Korea
- Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China
- Ishikawa Health Service Association, Japan
- Kitasato Research Center of Environmental Sciences, Japan
- Kitasato Institute, Medical Center Hospital, Japan
- Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University, Japan
The most recent test reported on 27 July 2009 was conducted by Osaka City University Medical School to validate the inhibitory effects of Plasmacluster Ions on allergic reactions caused by mite allergens.
Wrapping up our Sharp air purifier review on efficacy tests, we would highlight that a key factor is that they were conducted by organizations which have attained GLP (Good Laboratory Practices) status, an OECD guideline that attests the reliability of tests results produced. GLP status has to be renewed every 3 years. GLP is an important factor that is often ignored by critics of air purification technologies. Another crucial fact ? it is definitely possible for the work of a GLP laboratory to be peer reviewed scientifically. That, we know, is the key missing piece in the puzzle of air purification technologies, including Plasmacluster Ion technology!
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