Yes. Ozone is exceptionally good at tackling harmful bacteria and stopping it dead. Because of ozone’s highly reactive properties, it reacts with the bacteria and destroys it. When an ozone molecule meets a bacterial cell, it starts to break it down by making a hole in the bacterium’s cell wall. This is what holds the cell together, and without it the bacteria will begin to fall apart. This will happen countless times, ozone molecules coming into contact with the bacteria, making the same holes and rapidly eradicating the bacteria.

Ozone will also kill envelope viruses such as SARS and MERS in a similar way, by attacking the outside envelope of the virus so that it breaks down and is rendered harmless.

As a gas, ozone can filter through to any location it needs to get to. Bacteria’s and viruses’ favourite breeding grounds are warm, dark places that are often very difficult to reach using traditional cleaning and treatment methods. Without ozone, you’re only managing the problem rather than tackling it at source, costing you time and money in the long-term.

Ozone can reach those hidden places, and destroy the problem on a more permanent basis, by eradicating it completely.. With any microbial problem, if even a little is left alive, it will re-propagate very quickly and become as much of a problem as it was before.

Ozone can be used to continuously manage bacteria and virus levels in the background, whether in a public area or in the home. Specially designed generators that produce constant, low-level ozone can be used to prevent bacteria from growing or spreading. It’s useful for areas like well-used hallways or corridors where many people need access. In these instances the rooms are not easily evacuated or sealed-off for the use of a heavy duty ozone generator. Instead background generators can often be mounted on the ceiling or a wall so that they can perform their function discretely and unobtrusively.

In water, as ozone breaks down it forms hydrogen peroxy and hydroxyl, which act in tandem as a powerful disinfectant, killing bacteria and viruses in the same way it does in the air—by breaking down cell walls and obliterating them so that the ‘innards’ of the cell leak away into nothing.