The Negative Ion Effect: How Water Fountains Aid Respiratory Health

It is commonly understood that water fountains add beauty to any room in your home, and some are even designed for outdoor use. The distinction and grandeur they lend to any outdoor or indoor design is certainly desirable, but there are many other (and more practical) reasons to invest in a beautiful water wall fountain.

One such reason is the production of beneficial negative ions.

Essentially, negative ions are remarkably powerful cleaning agents. They are naturally occurring purifiers that remove contaminates, pollutants, bioaerosols, and dust particles from the air. They are produced by moving water and sunlight, with particularly high concentrations after electrical storms, and in higher-altitude environments. They are not synthesized in a lab; they are a natural, effective means of cleaning the very air you breathe.

But how, exactly, do these negative ions work

Particles in the air all have a certain polarity; they have either a positive or negative “charge.” Your average dust particle or impurity has a positive charge. In fact, almost all airborne contaminates carry a positive ionic charge. Negative ions, as their name suggests, have a negative charge. Their name, it should be noted, is a bit of a misnomer: they are not actually “ions,” but are instead clusters of negatively-charged Hydrogen atoms surrounded by floating water molecules. This makes them very dense.

Imagine tow magnets, of opposite polarity. The positively charged magnet is your airborne contaminate. The negatively charged magnet, the denser one, is your negative ion. What happens when you put them alongside each other? The negative ion attaches itself to the positive charge, and uses its density to pull the airborne contaminate out of the air. In essence, negative ions literally cause airborne pollutants to “drop out of the sky.”

We don’t all have the luxury of living near moving water, however, so we aren’t all constantly exposed to these beneficial particles. The very best way to introduce negative ions into your home, aside from living on the beach or alongside a river, is to install a quality wall fountain. Outdoor and indoor fountains alike naturally produce negative ions through the consistent flow of moving water circulating throughout the system. The crashing water will produce an incalculable amount of negative ions for you over time, particularly in environments that get lots of natural sunlight. With the right wall water fountain, you can improve and preserve your respiratory health for years to come.