Ozone risk season ends with record highs

It's a hot summer day. There are no clouds to block out the sun's heat and no wind to blow it away. It seems like a perfect day to grab a towel and a swimsuit and take the car down to the beach for some sun and surf.

Not exactly, according to the Clean Air Coalition of Southeast Michigan, because if it was one of those perfectly hot summer days, then taking a car anywhere could be dangerous for the environment.

This year's ozone action season, which began May 1 and ended Oct. 1, saw a record high for the number of ozone action days in southern Michigan. For a total of 26 days, weather conditions allowed the levels of air pollutants to rise dangerously close to the government's designated high risk level.

"Existing pollution, high temperatures, lack of cloud cover and low wind activity all combine to form a pollutant soup," said Anita Blasius, manager of the Clean Air Coalition Community Outreach. "It is the hot sunny days, which we love the most, that run the risk of high levels of ozone pollution."

The coalition created ozone action days six years ago to help make people and businesses aware of threats of ozone and other air pollutants such as nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds. By calling attention to days when the weather conditions help sustain the pollution at high levels in the air, the coalition tries to raise people's knowledge.

Blasius said the high number of ozone action days during this year's season hopefully does not represent a trend in the environment. Rather, she said, it is hopefully due to the summer's consistently warm weather and new health standards.

"During ozone action days, the coalition tries to get people to drive less by using public transportation and carpooling, not use charcoal lighter fluid, wait to mow lawns and use other gas-operated equipment, not use solvent based cleaners and paints, fill up car gas tanks after dark, and for businesses to use teleconferencing rather than make people drive to business meetings," Blasius said.

"Although businesses are regulated for their outputs of harmful ozone and other pollutants, individuals are not," she said.

But some attitudes toward the ozone action days differ from the coalition's view. Engineering Prof. Sanford Sillman, who researches the effects of ozone, said students cannot do much to help during the ozone action days.

"They say the best thing to do is not drive, but health damage caused by ozone is directly proportional to exercise," Sillman said, explaining that asking people to ride a bike instead of drive a car actually is worse for their health. "In other words, they're telling people to make their own health worse in order to help a very small amount."

"Also, such things as filling up gas tanks at different times are very insignificant to the actual amount of air pollutants," Sillman said.

Chuck Hersey, an air quality expert for the coalition, said he disagrees with that opinion, saying that "somewhere between 25 and 30 tons of hydrocarbons are added to the atmosphere each day from refueling. I don't think that cutting down on that number is an insignificant thing."

In response to the question of health risks, Hersey quipped, "What should we do, tell everyone to drive despite the risks of polluting the atmosphere?"

"We need to educate people about the impacts of conditions caused by increased levels of ozone and other air pollutants, and besides, the health risks associated with ozone days only target a small percentage of the population," Hersey said. "Most people are not affected by the pollutants at those levels."

SNRE first-year student Bruce Haywood said it is easy for students to adhere to ozone action day guidelines by doing things as simple as riding bikes to class. Still, "extreme exercise should be avoided" on days when ozone levels are high, he said, while simple activities such as walking and riding bikes do not pose reasonable health threats.

10-13-99