Ocean gets you high on Ozone??

Question

A credible friend, who is on the academic team at my high school, was telling me that reason ocean make us feel calm is because we are high the ozone... This is the first I've heard of it and I can't find any info online. Does anyone have any real input to this? Not just answers like "yes." or "no." or "thats crazy". 10 points someone who knows what the heck they're talking about!

Answer 1

No that makes absolutely no sense at all and it saddens me that someone who thinks that would qualify for the academic team. Ozone is created by electric fields or currents which split o2 molecules. Some of the free oxygen atoms then recombine to form o2 atoms, others combine to form o3 (ozone). Also some ozone is made via chemical reactions in smog catalyzed by sunlight. The ozone in the upper atmosphere is the result of oxygen-containing molecules interacting with UV light. No ozone is made in or around the ocean (except for where lightning strikes). The ocean is calming because of the repetitive sounds, also if you are out on a boat, the waves will calm you if they don't make you sea sick. And for some people, they find the ocean comforting because they grew up around it (seriously, I know a lot of ppl who are like this).

Additionally, you can't get high on ozone. Large quantities are poisonous but small quantities don't get you high. It has a distinctive smell so you would know if any was around. If you want to know what ozone smells like, it's the smell the ionic breeze makes. sometimes it smells like that in bars because they use ozone to neutralize the smell of cigarette smoke. If you ever smell something that smells "like electricity" that is ozone. I work out on the ocean and I have never smelled ozone out here.

Answer 2

I would be more likely to suspect it is akin to the euphoria of auto-asphyxia if it were actually ozone causing it. But unless you are following a trawler or something like that and breathing the exaust, the ozone levels should be much, much lower than at the average stoplight in a city. And stoplights don't have a calming effect on many people.

Here is something from the American Lung Association:

http://lungaction.org/reports/sota07_heffects.html

The end notes have references to a couple dozen studies on the effects of ozone.

I've heard the ozone-ocean notion before, I think it may be psuedo-science and a myth similar to an urban legend. Unless your friend stops repeating unsubstantiated claims like that, you might want be more judicious with the word "credible" when describing him or her.

Answer 3

I am not sure about this, but I think this might be what you are looking for, and I can offer a plausible, but highly speculative explanation of what he/she meant. First, I think by "ozone" I don't think he/she meant "ozone" as in O3, the toxic reactive gas. I think they meant "O" zone, as in Ocean Zone, meaning there was something calming about being near the ocean zone. (I know, dumb, but it comes from an episode of the animated PBS-Kids show Arthur, where they all go to the O-zone to have fun for the day.)

Anyway, there is nothing about ozone and the ocean being calming. However, the ocean is a unique source of something called dimethylsulfide (DMS for short) that is produced by phytoplankton called coccolithophores (I swear I didn't make up coccolithophore) for regulating their buoyancy. It is the characteristic tang you get from salt air, and implicated in formation of cloud condensation nucleii in the remote marine troposphere (I know, TMI, but the point is DMS is an important species in a biogeochemical sense). If you do a web search for "ocean DMS calming" you get stuff like this:

http://www.yeastinfectionadvisor.com/marinephytoplankton.html

talking about the calming effect of marine phytoplankton because of their DMS emissions.

So I think your friend garbled "O-zone" into "ozone" and wasn't clued in to the beneficial powers of DMS. Of cours,e I think the calming powers of DMS is a big crock o' lithophore, but this is probably what they were talking about.

Answer 4

I've not a clue how much truth is in this.... but.... I love waterfalls for much the same reason.... if it's the ions there that make me feel good, it stands to reason that the waves breaking would have about the same effect.... whatever it is, I'll swear to it... I feel the same way about the shore as I do about waterfalls!!.... it's just good for my psyche!!!...here's a website....

http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/rapids/8910/neg-ions-mae.html

Answer 5

I believe that the repetitive sound of waves crashes on the shore calms you, just like a crib rocking you when you were a wee baby. that's just my theory...

Answer 6

never heard that....ozone layer is high up so i don't think so