Proposed safety measures for work after ozone-induced deodorization in a hotel.

There is now a trend in the hotel business to use ozonegenerating equipment daily to remove tobacco and body odor from guest rooms, relying on the effects of sterilization, deodorization, and bleaching by ozone. Ozone can deodorize every corner of a room because it is a gas. Moreover, since it decomposes to oxygen after use, it has been thought to be comparatively safe but, the strong oxidization effect of ozone may cause adverse effects on humans depending on the concentration. The health effects of ozone have been reported as follows: 0.01 ppm; threshold for keen sense of smell, 0.1–0.3 ppm; irritating to mucous membranes of nose and throat in most individuals, 0.4 ppm; breathing disorder, 0.8–1.7 ppm; upper respiratory irritation, 1.0 ppm; cough and feeling of fatigue, 1.5 ppm; chest pain and depression, under 9.0 ppm; dyspnea and a lung congestion, 1,700 ppm; death within several minutes. While the ozone-generating equipment is in operation, a sign is put on the door, warning workers not to enter the hotel room. Nevertheless, during busy periods sometimes workers must clean the room while ozone is being generated or immediately after ozone generation has stopped, and some workers have complained of eye and/or throat irritation. In order to compile a health and safety manual, we measured the concentrations of ozone during and after the generation of ozone in several guest rooms and a corridor. The information is used to recommend how long workers should wait before entering a room after ozone generation in a hotel. This is the first report on the safety manual based on the results of ozone measurements. Subjects and Methods