When the Swedish Electrical Safety Authority and the Swedish Chemicals Agency inspected 20 air purifiers, four of them emitted ozone levels above the applicable limit value.
"The fact that 20 percent of the air purifiers examined gave off excessively high levels is serious," said Kerstin Gustafsson, an inspector at the Swedish Chemicals Agency, in a press release.
In addition, deficiencies were discovered in electrical safety, chemical content and documentation. Most of the air purifiers checked had some form of deficiency.
The review confirms that low-cost products, often imported from countries outside the EU, are more likely to have deficiencies.
Ozone can irritate the respiratory tract and eyes, cause coughing and breathing difficulties, and worsen asthma.
