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How to Keep House Smelling Okay?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2026
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The incident itself was: when we entered the room it smelled kind of strange, it's hard to describe. I dismissed it as "weird hotel room smell."
After 15 minutes, my asthma started to really get bad, even when using my puffer. Like, unable to breathe bad. We all developed a severe headache and dizziness. After another 15 minutes of searching, I found this small device in the room that was running on full blast.
Translating it with my phone, it described itself as an "anti-virus cleansing tool" or something. I aired out the room immediately, but ultimately we didn't feel comfortable staying there anymore and left. Quick phone research showed you should give 2 hours minimum before letting guests into the room, let alone have it running 24/7.
They refused to give us a refund. My general experience in Japan was that people will try to "smooth over" any problems, but IMO actually poisoning your guests isn't smoothable. I got the feeling this is just kind of the way this hotel operated; which is strange because it had generally good reviews.
I called my doctor later, but he said I probably should be fine; it's comparable to having chain smoked 20 cigarettes. More of a continuous long term risk than an acute risk. Not ideal for the younger family members obviously, but you also can't change the past.
After that incident, I was paranoid and on the lookout everywhere for these machines. I noticed that most elevators had "anti virus" ozone blasted in them. Stores and shops did too. I got pretty good at detecting the smell, and would look around for a sign on the wall advertising the "anti virus" features, usually in Japanese. I tried to hold my breathe or cover my mouth to prevent symptoms.
Every hotel room and airbnb had one of these machines; sometimes gigantic cabinet sized ones. Though apart from the incident, they were all switched off and hidden in a closet, so I was mostly ok with it.
I think it's to try and combat COVID-19 or something? But they just never took them down. From my research, they're actually completely useless for this purpose, but it probably feels better than doing nothing.
These devices produce ionized air which is indeed claimed to deactivate viruses. Unless the device is defective ozone might only be produced as a byproduct in small quantities, due to the toxicity, you've mentioned.
That might be right in general, but the device that the commenter included a picture of says オゾン (ozone) all over it. You can also see the O3 molecules in the diagram. So producing ozone does appear to be the primary function of that particular machine.
https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/will-ozone-generator-protect-me-and-my-family-covid-19
Basically, the stuff they use in shops and elevators is useless because it's too low concentration to matter. The low grade "gentle" ozone machines are just marketing scams. You're just mildly polluting the air, which if anything will make COVID worse, by mildly increasing the public's risk of respiratory disease. Ozone is a major pollutant; humans are not meant to breathe ozone at all if possible.
You have to really saturate the space with a powerful ozone generator to have any effect. But then you have to be extremely careful to give the free radicals enough time to dissipate before any humans go in there, or again you're just poisoning people.
Honestly, it's insane to me that it's even legal to routinely fill an indoor habitable room with an invisible caustic gas that has low odour. With no mandated safety precautions like a sign on the door or a lock to prevent accidental exposure. Just y'know, filling my room with gas again, no biggie.