There’s also growing evidence that ozone can affect the heart, increasing the risk of cardiac arrest. As ozone rises, even to levels below the EPA’s 75 parts per billion (ppb) health standard, studies have found increased asthma attacks and respiratory-driven hospital visits. That’s particularly true for the young, the elderly, and people with lung diseases. That means people in a wide swath of the country breathe air that doesn’t violate any rules-and doesn’t trigger any warnings-and yet, according to research, is unhealthy. Environmental Protection Agency’s independent science advisory panel has concluded that the nation’s health standard for ozone is too lenient, a view backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other health groups. It’s deemed unhealthful in parts of the mountain West, where most people expect the air would be cleanest.įor almost a decade, the U.S. Because the gas, created when nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon fumes bake in the sun, doesn’t stay put, it’s often worse in suburbs than in car-clogged downtowns. Ozone exceeds the federal health standard in smaller cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio, and Middletown, Connecticut. It’s an unlikely place to find ozone levels that sometimes rival those of smoggy Los Angeles.īedeviling communities across the United States, ozone isn’t limited to the urban centers that have struggled for decades to clean up the lung-damaging air pollutant. Trucks swish by, a few at a time, past the Ute Indian reservation. Pump jacks nod, pulling oil and gas from the ground. RANDLETT, UtahMountains sweep up from a landscape of red dirt and brown scrub. Editor’s Note: This is the first part of a two-part series produced in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity.
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