Air Quality I.
Index
Values
OtoSO
51 to 100
101 to 150
151 to 200
Air Quality
Descriptor
Good
Moderate
Unhealthy
for
Sensitive Groups
Unhealthy
Possible Health Effect:,
No health effects are expected.
Unusually sensitive individuals may
experience respiratory effects from
prolonged outdoor exposure to ozone.
Sensitive individuals may experience
respiratory symptoms (coughing, deep
breath pain) & reduced luig function.
Sensitive individuals have a higher chance
of experiencing respirator' niptoms and
reduced lung function, can Breathing
difficulty. At this level, any:) ; ould
experience respiratory effects
Protect Your Health
No health impacts
are expected when
air quality is in this range
Unusually sensitive people should
consider limiting prolonged outdoor
exertion.
Active children and adults, and people
with respiratory disease should limit
prolonged outdoor exertion.
Active children and adults, and people
with respiratory diesease should
avoid prolonged outdoor exertion;
everyone else, should limit prolonged
outdoor exertion.
Air Quality Index
The Air Quality Index, or AQI, is a scale used to report
actual levels of ozone and other common pollutants in the
air. The higher the AQI value, the greater the health
concern. As shown in the table above, the AQI scale has
been divided into categories that correspond to different
levels of health concern.
A specific color has been assigned to each AQI category.
For example, red means "unhealthy" conditions and purple
means "very unhealthy" conditions. This color scheme can
help you quickly determine if air pollutants are reaching
unhealthy levels in your area.
You may see the AQI for ozone reported in your
newspaper or on your local television or radio station.
Learn what you can do to clean the air and protect your
health. Get daily air quality information by calling, toll-
free, 1-866-DAILYAIR.
WI Daily Air Hotline
1-866-DAILYAIR
(1-866-324-5924)
What can I do to help
reduce ground-level ozone?
• Plan your trips before you go. It's easy! Chances are
you are already doing it—combining errands into one trip
and listening to the traffic report before you leave home.
When you know before you go, you get things done
efficiently, which helps reduce traffic congestion and air
pollution.
• Care for your car. Regular maintenance and tune-
ups, changing the oil and checking tire inflation can
improve gas mileage, extend your car's life and increase its
resale value. It could reduce your car's emissions by half!
• Postpone fueling and always tighten your gas
cap. Refueling during the evening and tightening your gas
cap can prevent the creation of ozone by reducing harmful
fumes from escaping and baking in the sun.
• Conserve energy. Use energy-efficient light bulbs and
appliances and turn them off when not in use. Run
dishwashers and clothes washers only when full.
• Take mass transit, share a ride or carpool. Even
once or twice a week reduces traffic congestion, pollution
and saves you money.
For today's ozone levels in Wisconsin, go to:
http://www.dnr.state.wi.iis/org/aw/air/wisards/state.htm
AIRNOW(www.epa.gov/airnow) is an Internet site that
gives daily information about ozone and how it may affect
you. The air quality data is provided to EPA by the states
participating in this project.
Maps that provide
daily information
about ozone levels are
available on the
AIRNOW Web site.
United/States .
Environmental
Protection Agency
Air and Radiation
EPA-452/F-02-001
January 2002
Washington, DC 20460
Ozone and
Your Health
**s*
What Is Ozone, or Smog:
Are You at Risk?
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
PUB-AM-3182002
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Ozone, the main ingredient of smog, presents a
serious air quality problem in many parts of the
United States. Even at low levels, ozone can
cause a number of respiratory effects. You can take
simple steps, described in this pamphlet, to protect your
health from ozone.
Ozone is the main ingredient of smog.
What is ozone?
Ozone is a gas that occurs both in the Earth's upper
atmosphere and at ground level. Ozone can be good or
bad, depending on where it is found.
Good Ozone. Ozone occurs naturally in the Earth's
upper atmosphere—10 to 30 miles above the Earth's
surface—where it shields us from the sun's harmful
ultraviolet rays.
Bad Ozone. In the Earth's lower atmosphere, near
ground level, ozone is formed when pollutants emitted by
cars, power plants, chemical plants, and other sources react
chemically in the presence of sunlight. Ozone pollution is
a concern during the summer months when the weather
conditions needed to form ground-level ozone—lots of
sun, hot temperatures—normally occur.
Are you at risk from ground-level ozone?
Several groups of people are particularly sensitive to ozone—
especially when they are active outdoors—because physical
activity causes people to breathe faster and more deeply.
Active children are the group at highest risk from ozone
exposure because they often spend a large part of the
summer playing outdoors. Children are also more likely to
have asthma, which may be aggravated by ozone exposure.
Active adults of all ages who exercise or work
vigorously outdoors have a higher level of exposure to
ozone than people who are less active.
People with asthma or other respiratory diseases
that make the lungs more vulnerable to the effects of
ozone will generally experience health effects earlier and at
lower ozone levels than less sensitive individuals.
People with unusual susceptibility to ozone.
Scientists don't yet know why, but some healthy people may
experience health effects at more moderate levels of outdoor
exertion or at lower ozone levels than the average person.
In general, as concentrations of ground-level ozone
increase, more and more people experience health effects,
the effects become more serious, and more people are
admitted to the hospital for respiratory problems. When
ozone levels are very high, everyone should be concerned
about ozone exposure.
Children and adults of all ages who are active outdoors are
at risk from ozone exposure.
Ozone can inflame the lung's lining. These photos show a
healthy lung airway (left) and an inflamed lung airway (right).
How can ground-level ozone affect your health?
Ozone can irritate your respiratory system, causing
you to start coughing, feel an irritation in your throat and/ or
experience an uncomfortable sensation in your chest.
Ozone can reduce lung function and make it more
difficult for you to breathe as deeply and vigorously as you
normally would. When this happens, you may notice that
breathing starts to feel uncomfortable. If you are exercising
or working outdoors, you may notice that you are taking
more rapid and shallow breaths than normal.
Ozone can aggravate asthma. When ozone levels are
high, more people with asthma have attacks that require a
doctor's attention or the use of additional medication. One
reason this happens is that ozone makes people more
sensitive to allergens, which are the most common triggers
for asthma attacks. Also, asthmatics are more severely
affected by the reduced lung function and irritation that
ozone causes in the respiratory system.
Ozone can inflame and damage cells that line
your lungs. Within a few days, the damaged cells are
replaced and the old cells are shed—much in the way your
skin peels after a sunburn.
Ozone may aggravate chronic lung diseases such
as emphysema and bronchitis and reduce the immune
system's ability to fight off bacterial infections in the
respiratory system.
Ozone may cause permanent lung damage.
Repeated short-term ozone damage to children's
developing lungs may lead to reduced lung function in
adulthood. In adults, ozone exposure may accelerate the
natural decline in lung function that occurs as part of the
normal aging process.
Are there always symptoms?
Ozone damage also can occur without any noticeable
signs. People who live in areas where ozone levels are
frequently high may find that their initial symptoms go
away over time—particularly when exposure to high ozone
levels continues for several days. Ozone continues to cause
lung damage even when the symptoms have disappeared.
The best way to protect your health is to find out when
ozone levels are elevated in your area and take simple
precautions to minimize exposure even when you don't
feel obvious symptoms.
How can you avoid
unhealthy exposure to ozone?
Your chances of being affected by ozone increase the
longer you are active outdoors and the more strenuous the
activity you engage in. If you're involved in an activity that
requires heavy exertion, you can reduce the time you
spend on this activity or substitute another activity that
requires more moderate exertion (e.g., go for a walk rather
than a jog). In addition, you can plan outdoor activities
when ozone levels are lower, usually in the morning or
evening.
Examples of activities that involve moderate exertion
include climbing stairs, playing tennis or baseball, simple
garden or construction work, and light jogging, cycling, or
hiking. Activities that involve heavy exertion include
playing basketball or soccer, chopping wood, heavy
manual labor, and vigorous running, cycling, or hiking.
Because fitness levels vary widely among individuals, what
is moderate exertion for one person may be heavy exertion
for another. No matter how fit you are, cutting back on
the level or duration of exertion when ozone levels are high
will help protect you from ozone's harmful effects.
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