RAMP Sponsoring Legislation to Improve Respiratory Safety of Air Cleaners in California

RAMP is proud to sponsor SB 1308, The Ozone Safe Air Cleaners Bill, authored by California Senate Majority Leader, Senator Lena Gonzalez. 

As more Californians use portable air cleaners, sometimes called air purifiers, to reduce their exposure to air pollution including wildfire smoke, we need to ensure that those air cleaners are safe. Unfortunately, not all air cleaners are the same. Mechanical air cleaners that filter air using High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) or similar filters are safe and effective. However, electronic air cleaners using technologies such as ionizers, electrostatic precipitators, PCOs, hydroxyl generators, and UV lights can produce ozone or other byproducts harmful to health.

Although current law requires all portable indoor air cleaners sold in California to meet an ozone emission limit of 50 parts per billion (ppb), new scientific research has demonstrated that even exposure to ozone at 5 ppb is associated with an increased risk for asthma-related emergency room visits and hospital admissions.

SB 1308 would direct the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to update California’s regulation to align with current scientific evidence by setting a new ozone limit of 5 ppb. This aligns with the finding of a white paper commissioned by the CARB where the University of California, Davis authors state, “.…we recommend California further reduce ozone emissions from electronic air cleaners by requiring compliance with UL2998, a more stringent ozone emission standard of 5 ppb. This would reduce the allowable indoor ozone emissions by an order of magnitude which would provide a direct health benefit and subsequently reduce secondary formaldehyde and ultrafine particle formation that is driven by ozone chemistry.”

The bill passed the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality and will soon go to the Senate Floor. We hope that you will join RAMP in supporting this important bill by submitting a letter of support. Click here to find a template with instructions for submitting letters via the Legislature’s Advocates Portal.   If you have not used the portal before, this instructional video can help.