Weston Warren, in an interview, said about his invention: “The CarryiOn is the world’s first 5-volt portable, battery-operated device. What it does is produce cold plasma bipolar ions. This technology is producing positive and negative oxygen ions simultaneously. The hydrogen oxygen ion, in a charged state … any virus, bacteria, mold or mildew this comes in contact with neutralizes or kills the pathogen instantly. It’s not harmful, and it’s nontoxic to humans, plants or animals. The ion clusters break down into water vapor or CO2 carbon dioxide. Our corporate slogan is ‘We are duplicating nature’s genius.’ This is how the earth cleans the atmosphere and surfaces. When there is a thunderstorm, trillions of positive hydrogen negative oxygen ions are created. These natural oxidizers come down scrubbing the atmosphere and the surfaces and clean everything. That’s why, after a thunderstorm, you have this fresh smell. It’s a natural disinfectant … So, basically, the technologies I co-invented and have national and international patents on … produce natural oxidizers to keep your environment safe.” Is this an effective means to purify the air and remove dangerous pathogens, as he claims?

While the claims are sweeping, all he states is generally true, at least up to a point. There are organisms that can resist such exposure depending on length of time and concentration, and so forth. So this is not a perfect weapon for the purpose, but given its tolerability by larger life forms, it is a gentle and safe way to provide meaningful cleansing, if only reducing things to a less noxious and less dangerous level, but that, too, is a meaningful contribution. After all, the size of the inoculum will determine whether pathogens can mount a foothold. It takes a certain number of organisms to take root and start an active infection going. Low numbers in the environment will likely be dealt with by natural immune systems and are simply not dangerous. So perfection is not necessary. Anything helpful that is cost-effective is a benefit to well-being. There are restrictions as well on the volume of an area that can be effectively treated in this way to maintain an effective cleansing exposure of ions, but that is a question for the manufacturer to provide guidelines, and so forth. So this has our endorsement as a way to spruce up a home or other setting where there are concerns about noxious materials as well as microbial pathogens out and about.