It's impossible to prove a negative. No study will ever prove a device does NOT do something.

 

And I am getting MUCH to emotional about this topic.


Maybe it would be better if we just discussed the BORAT movie. Has anyone else seen this? I laughed myself silly.

 

Marianne,

SciFi Guy has posted reports for his conclusions, I would love to see the ****ing evidence you have that the plasmacluster will kill you. I don't care to see Ionizing reports, but some that report on how the plasmacluster has caused illness or damaged lung tissue.

Short of those reports, you are just assuming it is bad. So since it is safer for you to err on the side of caution, just get the Nissan and forget about the Toyota.

 

Age4ever,

There are a LOT of papers published on the topic. For those of us with a family member with asthma, especially someone with an asthmatic child - this is a serious issue. There were three (or more) class action lawsuits against Sharper Image corporation because users of their device suffered health consequences.

http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/indoor/ozone.htm

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/house...cateurs_e.html

To the best of my knowledge you are correct that there aren't any similar complaints against the Plasmacluster. I spoke to a tech employee of Sharp and he stressed that the Plasmacluster was much lower in ozone emissions than Sharper Image and other ionizers. If you do a MAUDE search on the FDA database you will find many years of complaints of ionizers causing health problems. (None named the Plasmacluster.)

I'm not trying to be pissy about this issue. My delema stems from the fact that hands down the Camry hybrid looks like the best car out there. I'd love to have us get it, and I do want to fully explore whether or not there is a way around this one small issue. This would all be really easy if the Camry hybrid wasn't a good car. But it is. In fact it is a great car. It offers size, safety features, the very best in mechanical reliability, and pretty much everything else. If I go down a check list, the Camry hybrid is going to get my top score on every point. That's why I'm putting so much effort into finding out if I can get the Plasmacluster out. It's a tiny device and probably costs less than five dollars in the over all component design. It's not something that should be even missed if I can find a way of easily getting it out.

 

Well, Marianne, my un-asked for advice, is the same as another poster here. Negotiate and buy the TCH. In your offer, state "Plasmacluster to be disconnected by dealer at no cost to buyer" If they want you business, they will accept this, and if they are unable to disconect it (doubtful), you will have grounds to return the car.

Most sales department personel have no idea what is able to be done or not in the service dept, and most will agree, to get the car sold. It is then up to the service dept to make it happen.

 

Jeff, most of these tecs do not even know these cars have a plasmacluster far from unhooking it. Soo many vehicals running around with the batteries going dead and they just keep replacing batteries because that is all they know how to do. it is soooo sad.

 

jbolt, we are going back and forth on an even easier solution. We live in Southern California and the weather here is almost always nice, so we actually don't have a lot of days that you need the AC. My thinking is that we might just get the Camry hybrid and NOT use the AC or heater. And if we have any days that we are really going to need AC, we could swap cars for a couple days. That's not the perfect solution, but it's a good many months till July and August when we'd really need the AC, and I'd be astounded if the techs haven't figured out how to get the Plasmacluster out by then.

 

This is all very strange and much to do about nothing. Like me, my son has asthma, but his is much, much worst. He’s nine years old now and has probably spent more time hospitalized than an 80 year old with heart problems. We take it day by day and pray that he doesn’t get another attack. My wife lives in constant fear of the next severe attack and works part time to ensure she’s available to accommodate his needs at the drop of a hat. At this point I can honestly believe that she has enough knowledge on the subject for a Doctorate. This is one issue where my wife is over protective to the point of extreme irritation.

My son and I have spent hours of commuting time in a TCH with the AC (especially recently) running. An asthmatic attack with the TCH has never been an issue and, most of all; it had been approved by my wife prior to the first commute. Perhaps you’ll have more to fear from lead poisoning from eating tomatoes.

 

Marianne — It's actually not a matter of the techs figuring out how to remove the Plasmacluster. The Repair Manual tells them precisely how to do this. However, it requires dismantling the whole dashboard to do so! It's really a matter of simply disabling it, which should be much simpler to do by just unplugging it, as my investigations revealed. Instead of all the time that has been wasted on acrimonious debate about the Plasmacluster's potential or imagined dangers, which has reached no firm conclusions, why don't you actually go out and do something. Go to the dealer and do what jbollt suggests. It's just too easy to sit at the keyboard wasting everybody's time, including your own. Sorry if I sound frustrated, but I am!

Stan

 

Have them pull the fuseon the plasmacluster. when you want it to work put fuse back in. easy enough.