Alpine Industries,
of Greeneville Tennessee, manufactures various consumer and commercial products
and markets them through independent distributors. Its best known products are
air-purification devices -- ozone generators that circulate room air through
an electrically charged plate. The plate converts the oxygen into ozone that
is recirculated into the room by a fan in the unit [1]. The company states that
its distributors have sold more than three million of its air-purification systems
since 1987 [2].
In January 2000,
a federal court ordered the company to stop making health claims for its ozone
generators [3,4]. In April 2001, the judge assessed a civil penalty of $1.49
million plus costs and interest against Alpine Industries and its president
William J. Converse. The court also entered an injunction barring Alpine and
Converse from making any claims that the "air purifiers" sold by the
company remove any indoor air pollutant, except for "visible" tobacco
smoke and some odors. It also cautioned the defendants that they cannot represent
that these claims mean that the devices actually remove chemicals, particles,
or microorganisms from indoor air. Finally, the court barred the defendants
from claiming that their products prevent, or provide relief from, medical conditions
of any kind or that sensors in the machines control the ozone levels in indoor
spaces [5-7].