I'm only smelling and tasting it for a second or so, then it's gone. So, it's an odor coming straight from the pipe as far as I've observed. I tried doing this in a very dark room, and looking for static in the bubbler reservoir, but saw nothing. I'm sure there's just some basic physics that I should know, explaining this situation, but, I'm just a dummy. Anyways, I don't want to experiment with it anymore, knowing that excess ozone can be a bad thing for your body.