Articles | Volume 21, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13011-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13011-2021
Opinion
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02 Sep 2021
Opinion | Highlight paper |  | 02 Sep 2021

Opinion: The germicidal effect of ambient air (open-air factor) revisited

R. Anthony Cox, Markus Ammann, John N. Crowley, Paul T. Griffiths, Hartmut Herrmann, Erik H. Hoffmann, Michael E. Jenkin, V. Faye McNeill, Abdelwahid Mellouki, Christopher J. Penkett, Andreas Tilgner, and Timothy J. Wallington

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Cited articles

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Artz, C. P., Reiss, E., Davis, J. H. J., and Amspacher, W. H.: The exposure treatment of burns, Ann. Surg., 137, 456–464, 1953. 
Bailey, P. S.: The reactions of ozone with organic compounds, Chem. Rev., 58, 925–1010, 1958. 
Bailey, R., Fielding, L., Young, A., and Griffith, C.: Effect of Ozone and Open Air Factor against Aerosolized Micrococcus luteus, J. Food Protect., 70, 2769–2773, https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028X-70.12.2769, 2007. 
Becker, B., Brill, F. H. H., Todt, D., Steinmann, E., Lenz, J., Paulmann, D., Bischoff, B., and Steinmann, J.: Virucidal efficacy of peracetic acid for instrument disinfection, Antimicrob. Resist. In., 6, 114, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-017-0271-3, 2017. 
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The term open-air factor was coined in the 1960s, establishing that rural air had powerful germicidal properties possibly resulting from immediate products of the reaction of ozone with alkenes, unsaturated compounds ubiquitously present in natural and polluted environments. We have re-evaluated those early experiments, applying the recently substantially improved knowledge, and put them into the context of the lifetime of aerosol-borne pathogens that are so important in the Covid-19 pandemic.
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