That’s the one.
Lightning makes ozone. You can sometimes smell it in a thunderstorm.
In safety lectures, they tell you if you can smell ozone then it has already killed you.
Well that’s obvious bullshit.
It has a very strong smell, even at pretty small concentrations in a (well-ventilated) test room.
(Used to test insulation of gadgets at 4.5kV and occasionally up to 10kV - enough to get the corona effect going.)
Photocopiers/laser printers produce ozone.
2 Likes
We used to sell ozone gas generators both small units for the lab and larger units for swimming pools and for long term storage of fruit & vegetables.
You can smell it when there is some electrical discharge as like lighting the discharge converts oxygen O2 to ozone O3
As it is so deadly, the safety procedures are strong and dire, so that is the warning given in training course to operators. Ozone generators are limited so that indoor devices can only produce a maximum of 50 ppb (parts per billion) of ozone, anything over 100 ppb starts attacking the lining of your lungs and can cause death after a 5 minute exposure.
They are really effective in swimming pools, and with little other chemicals and a good filter, the water will be kept crystal clean and very safe.
Safety procedures and training is fine and good, but they shouldn’t include disinformation.
Lots of things can be smelt at non-lethal concentrations.
Except it is not actually disinformation. If you can smell it and take no action then you may die.
One of those things is not like the other 
1 Like
Yep, I am just repeating how they approach safety lectures on ozones with strong messages. It is maybe over the top but it does make you take notice and move to safety.
Ozone takes about 4 hours to break down to oxygen.
1 Like
Yeah this is real interesting and all but it’s not about rain is it?
4 Likes
plenty more of it coming over the coming weeks. another ~20mm on Friday/Saturday a chance.
So much going on in the tropics, lot’s of cyclones popping off.
1 Like
Yes Donald.
1 Like
If you can smell rain, then you’re already dead
Sorry BF but HAP is right on this. The workplace exposure standards for varying durations for ozone are 0.1-0.3 ppm, while the level at which ozone is ‘immediately dangerous to life or health’ is 5 ppm. Humans can smell ozone at 0.005-0.02 ppm, so quite a ways below where it’s dangerous, even at 8 hour time weighted average limits.
Now, if you can smell hydrogen sulfide…
1 Like
Well Dave, you can believe what you like, but Australian standards on this are not as strict as many other places, and for my Staff and customers, it was always better to be safe than sorry. Thousands of deaths around the world each year due to ozone in the atmosphere; more critical inside and in the workplace.
Yeah but Ok, it is just rain I can smell.
3 Likes
Many things can be toxic at the wrong concentration. Oxygen that we desperately need to live would kill us at a little over twice the atmospheric concentration.
From Ben’s article:
ozone
Before the rain begins, one of the first odors you may notice as winds pick up and clouds roll in is a sweet, pungent zing in your nostrils. That’s the sharp, fresh aroma of ozone—a form of oxygen whose name comes from the Greek word ozein (to smell).
1 Like
Thank you.
What on earth have I started here. Yikes. 