Two ion counts, one directly above the unit and one a meter away, and what the gap between them means for where you put it
The Breathe Safe is sold as a personal-space purifier, not a room purifier. That is not a marketing preference. It comes from two laboratory measurements taken at two distances, and reading them together tells you where the unit belongs.
The Breathe Safe laboratory testing page publishes every report behind the numbers we use, and two of them describe ion output at two distances. Measured directly above the unit by the Guangzhou Testing Center of Industrial Microbiology, report KJ20150562 recorded 1.91 x 107 negative ions per cubic centimeter and report KJ20150676 recorded 4.35 x 106 positive ions per cubic centimeter. Added together that is roughly 23 million ions per cm3, which is where the "23 million plasma ions" figure on the product page comes from. Background readings in the same tests were below 1.00 x 103.
The second measurement is the one this article is about. At a distance of 100 cm from the unit, the negative-ion level held near 5.4 to 5.9 x 104 per cm3. The laboratory took that reading in two test spaces, 3 m3 and 30 m3, and the result was similar in both. The testing page notes for scale that this is tens of times the levels commonly reported near large waterfalls.
| Where measured | Reading | Report |
|---|---|---|
| Directly above the unit, negative ions | 1.91 x 107 per cm3 | KJ20150562 |
| Directly above the unit, positive ions | 4.35 x 106 per cm3 | KJ20150676 |
| 100 cm away, negative ions (3 m3 and 30 m3 spaces) | about 5.4 to 5.9 x 104 per cm3 | Ion & Ozone report, linked from the testing page |
| Background | below 1.00 x 103 per cm3 | Ion & Ozone report, linked from the testing page |
Put the two figures side by side. About 19 million negative ions per cm3 directly above the unit; about 55,000 one meter away. That is a fall of several hundred times across a single meter. The general explanation, consistent with the two readings, is that ions are charged particles and charged particles give up their charge to the first surface or particle they meet, so an ion field is dense close to its source and thins with distance. What the reports establish is the two measured points; the shape of the curve between them was not measured.
Two conclusions follow, and both are built into how the Breathe Safe is described. First, the space where the output is strongest is the space within arm's reach of the unit. Second, the 100 cm figure is still tens of thousands of ions per cm3 above a background of under a thousand, so a meter is a working distance, not a dead zone. Between those two facts sits the phrase the product line uses: personal-space air purification. The unit is designed around the air near one person, not around the volume of a room, and no square-footage or air-changes figure is claimed for it.
It also fits the fact that the two test-chamber sizes gave similar readings at 100 cm, which is what you would expect if the level at a meter is set mainly by distance from the unit rather than by the size of the space beyond it. The page does not say which reading came from which chamber, so take that as the consistent reading of the figures rather than a measured rule.
The practical rule is to put yourself inside the distance the measurement describes. Everywhere the product page suggests the Breathe Safe can be used, a desk, a bedside, a vehicle, a hotel room, a treatment room or a Sauna Fix tent, the same placement logic applies.
What placement cannot do is turn a personal-space unit into a whole-house one. If the goal is the air across a large open-plan room, the honest answer from these measurements is that one Breathe Safe covers the person sitting next to it, and the portable air purifier collection is where to compare the options for more than one space.
The ion counts are output measurements. They say how many charged particles the unit puts into the air at two distances, under laboratory conditions, and nothing else. They are not the pollutant results; those come from separate chamber tests on the testing page, each with its own report, each in a sealed 1 m3 chamber over four hours, and each stated only for the tested unit under those conditions. They are not a statement about a room, because no room was tested. And they are equipment measurements, not medical evidence: the Breathe Safe is not a medical device, and the testing page says so in as many words.
One adjacent measurement belongs here because it is also a distance figure. After 60 minutes of continuous operation in a 3 m3 chamber, ozone at 100 cm from the outlet measured below 0.003 mg/m3, effectively none detected. And the oxygen reading, about 17% higher, was taken 3 cm above the unit after 5 minutes; the laboratory recorded it as a reference measurement, and it describes the air at the outlet, not the air you breathe across a room.
Every number on this page comes from a published third-party report and describes the tested unit under the reported conditions: a sealed test chamber is not a living room. We present the results as measured, not extrapolated, and they make no claim about health outcomes.
The Breathe Safe is a USB-powered plasma unit with no filter to replace, three output modes, and a published test file behind every figure. Put it within arm's reach and keep the plate brushed.
Practitioner Eileen Durfee, NBS (Nutritional Balancing Science), NASM-CPT — wellness educator, inventor, author, and a former nuclear quality assurance engineer.
Before I was an inventor I audited nuclear power plants, an industry where a number without a signed document does not exist, and I carried that habit into the Breathe Safe. I paid independent laboratories to measure what the unit actually does to VOCs, particulates, bacteria, oxygen and ozone, and I publish every page of what came back, the strong numbers and the modest ones alike. The 100 cm ion reading is one of the modest ones, and it is published for the same reason as the strong ones: so you can see where the unit works.
The unit travels with me to hotel rooms and runs beside my desk, so I hold it to the same standard I would demand from anyone else: show me the test. Our Facebook group is free to join if you want to ask questions.
Within about a meter, and ideally within arm's reach. The laboratory measured roughly 23 million ions per cm3 directly above the unit and about 5.4 to 5.9 x 104 per cm3 at 100 cm, so the field is strongest close in and still well above background at one meter.
Not in the measurements published. The 100 cm reading was similar in a 3 m3 space and a 30 m3 space, which is what you would expect if the level at a meter is set by distance from the outlet rather than by room size.
It is designed around personal-space air purification rather than high-volume room filtration, and no square-footage figure is claimed for it. The measurements describe the air within about a meter of one person.
Yes. After 60 minutes of continuous operation in a 3 m3 chamber, ozone at 100 cm from the outlet measured below 0.003 mg/m3. The full ion and ozone report is linked from the testing page.
Published September 2026 • Updated September 13, 2026
By Eileen Durfee, NBS, NASM-CPT, inventor of the Breathe Safe® portable plasma air purifier and a former nuclear quality assurance engineer.
More from Eileen Durfee
Eileen's free Healthy Home Detox Checklist, on EileenDurfee.com
This article is for educational purposes only. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Nuco Enterprise Solutions LLC.
