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Ozone season begins

May brings graduations, summer vacations and warm weather. It also marks the start of ozone season, when warmer air more easily cooks this pollutant with other airborne chemicals to create smog. While you enjoy the start of summer, make sure to check the air quality in your area along with the weather before heading outside.

Ozone can be beneficial or harmful depending on its location. In the atmosphere several miles above the earth, a layer of ozone helps protect us from the sun’s most harmful rays. On the ground, however, it’s a different story: Ozone combines with nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds to form smog, which can make the air difficult and harmful to breathe for certain people. Factors like hotter temperatures, very sunny days, and still air can make ozone worse.

Your local environmental authority may issue “ozone alerts” on days when levels exceed health-based standards. On these days children, the elderly and people with respiratory problems are at risk of developing breathing difficulties, so they should plan on avoiding being outdoors for long periods. Even if you don’t belong to one of these groups, it’s a good idea to limit outdoor activities like exercise and yard work during daylight hours.

Besides protecting yourself and your loved ones, you can also take action to help prevent ozone levels from getting too high. Ozone comes from emissions from vehicles, industrial sources and gasoline vapors, so cutting down on those emissions will help reduce ozone levels. Especially on hot days, avoid driving and using gas-powered lawnmowers while the sun is up. If you have to fill up your gas tank, plan to do so before sunrise or after sunset—but no matter what time you do it, never top off the tank. This allows gas vapors to escape into the air, where they become an ingredient for smog.

Over the last several decades, EPA regulations and efforts from communities and industies to cut emissions have resulted in much improved air quality for many areas of the country. You can read more about air quality issues and check your area’s daily readings at www.airnow.gov, a Web site run by EPA and several other partner agencies.