Ozone therapy

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Ozone therapy is a controversial<ref> Oxygenation Therapy: Unproven Treatments for Cancer and AIDS. Quackwatch. Retrieved on 2006-11-03.</ref> practice that some practitioners and advocates of alternative medicine claim can be used for healing<ref>Medical Ozone Therapy Oxygen Therapies. Applied Ozone Systems. Retrieved on 2006-11-03.</ref>. These claims extend to a wide range of therapy. Ozone can be introduced to the body in many ways, including through water absorption, injection, transdermal application, insufflation (leaking the gas into the body). The gas is generally used at very carefully controlled levels.

Ozone has a number of medical uses. It can be used to affect the body's antioxidant-prooxidant balance, since the body usually reacts to its presence by producing antioxidant enzymes.^{[citation needed]} Ozone therapy has blossomed into a thriving field of alternative medicine, with a host of claimed applications far above and beyond what has actually been verified by studies ^{[citation needed]}.

Medical ozone therapy is recognized in Bulgaria, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Romania and Russia. It is currently used legally in 16 Nations. At least 12 states in the USA (AK, AZ, CO, GA, MN, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, SC and WA) have passed legislation to ensure that alternative therapies are available to consumers. Physicians in those states can legally use ozone as an alternative treatment in their practice without fear of prosecution.

At least one death has been attributed to the application of ozone through insufflation in the USA.<ref>Marchetti D, An unexpected death during oxygen-ozone therapy, Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2000 Jun;21(2):144-7</ref>

The U.S. EPA recognizes inhaled ozone to have a number of detrimental effects; "10 to 20 percent of all summertime respiratory-related hospital visits in the northeastern U.S. are associated with [ground-level] ozone pollution". Further, the EPA warns against exposure to ozone, reporting that high levels of O₃ are toxic to humans, and non-toxic levels are unable to remove bacteria, viruses, or fungi in any meaningful way. <ref name="EPA">Health and Environmental Effects of Ground-Level Ozone, U.S. EPA, July 1997</ref>