Photo  by Nicole Roegner

Our summer ozone season is notorious for bad air, but a new campaign is encouraging Valley residents to crank up the heat on pollution.

Valley residents baking in the summer heat aren’t alone – the air is baking, too. And ozone pollution is fresh out of the oven.
Maricopa County already had exceeded the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s new set of ozone standards three days in 2008, as of press time. The EPA released stronger ozone regulations in March, reducing the acceptable amount of pollution from .084 to .075 parts per million.
Unlike the Valley’s brown cloud, ozone is a colorless, odorless gas. Good ozone forms high in the atmosphere and protects the Earth from UV radiation. Bad, ground-level ozone forms when nitrogen oxides – such as smoke from wildfires, and volatile organic compounds like gasoline vapors – cook under heat and sunlight.
With the Valley’s April-to-September “ozone season” under way, Maricopa County is challenging citizens to take on the two culprits of air pollution in the Valley: ozone and particulates, which cause the big, brown cloud hovering over us. Particulate pollution, caused largely by humans stirring up dust, also has been a chronic pollution problem in the Valley.
In the long run, the county stands to lose federal highway dollars if it can’t maintain the EPA’s limits. The more immediate concern, says Holly Ward, community and media relations manager for the county’s air quality department, is the detrimental health effects the pollution causes.
Ozone pollution can lead to difficulty breathing, coughing and/or sore throats for even the healthiest individuals. It also can aggravate chronic respiratory illnesses, like emphysema, and increase the frequency and severity of asthma attacks. In the long term, ozone can tear delicate lung tissue. Children, senior citizens and people who work outdoors are particularly vulnerable to these effects.
Ward says people who drive solo are some of the biggest culprits behind both ozone and particulate pollution. A departmental study found that 85 percent of Valley residents surveyed drive to work alone rather than carpool or take public transportation.
“It’s really human activity that’s creating this problem. We’re going to have to start acting smart. Everyone needs to contribute to that effort,” Ward says. “There are lots of little things people can do. We give you lots of options. Pick one. Pick three. But let’s all start doing something.”