Ozone

Anne Arundel County suffers from the worst ozone pollution on the East Coast, according to a study by the Maryland Public Interest Research Group (MaryPIRG).Ozone levels around Fort Meade and in Davidsonville are among the highest in the nation, said the environmental group, which measures the concentration of ozone in the air.Ozone pollution is at its worst from May through September. The gas is a mix of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide cooked under sunlight. Produced primarily by automobile exhaust and fossil-fuel-burning power plants, it can cause lung damage, eye irritation, breathing difficulties and chest pain.

High in the Earth's stratosphere, the ozone layer that shields our planet from the sun's harmful rays is in jeopardy. And the statistics are alarming:In Antarctica, the ozone hole is more than twice the size of Europe. It now covers swaths of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and the southern tip of South America.That's the largest it has been since it was discovered in 1985, according to the World Meteorological Organization.In Australia, up to three out of four people are expected to develop skin cancer.

Strong reasons to worry about the long-term health of Northeast forests are coming from new, detailed studies of the effect of chronic pollution on mature trees, scientists report.After 11 years of experiments and surveys in three Northeast forest areas, researchers conclude that near-constant exposure to nitrogen-rich chemicals, from sources such as acid rain, reduces the vigor and growth of evergreen trees. Some evergreens are killed. Airborne ozone also is detrimental, they said.Although the extra nitrates contributed via pollution act as a fertilizer, initially spurring tree growth, long-term additions of nitrates eventually saturate the ground, causing nutrients such as calcium, manganese and potassium to become mobile and leach out of the soil.

Believe it or not, the quality of air in the mid-Atlantic region is getting better, mostly because of reductions in carbon monoxide emissions from automobiles.A three-year University of Maryland study published in today's issue of Geophysical Research Letters shows carbon monoxide (CO) -- one ingredient in the noxious stew of chemicals known as ozone -- dropping 23 percent over the past 10 years. That suggests other pollutants are dropping as well, said Bruce Doddridge, a research scientist in UM's department of meteorology and one of the authors of the study.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most polluted in the nation, an environmental group has reported after analyzing government air-quality data.Readings for ozone, poor visibility and acid precipitation, grouped into a single air-pollution index, have risen sharply in the Smokies since 1993, the data show. A second park in the southern Appalachians, Virginia's Shenandoah, ranked second-highest among the 10 parks scored."The parks are in trouble," said Appalachian Voices Chairman Harvard Ayers, an Appalachian State University professor who did the analysis.

Before moving from Columbus, Ohio, to Baltimore in the summer of 1986, Jan Lucas had never been hospitalized for her asthma. But within three weeks, she learned the difference between living in a town with clean air and one with chronic ozone pollution.Wheezing and unable to breathe, she was rushed to Greater Baltimore Medical Center and hospitalized for nearly a week. It was the first in a series of emergency visits so numerous that she has lost count, she says."I only found out after I moved here that the air pollution in this area is about as bad as it gets east of the Mississippi," says Lucas, 49, assistant director of university relations at Towson University.

Anne Arundel County suffers from the worst ozone pollution on the East Coast, according to a study by the Maryland Public Interest Research Group (MaryPIRG).Ozone levels around Fort Meade and in Davidsonville are among the highest in the nation, said the environmental group, which measures the concentration of ozone in the air.Ozone pollution is at its worst from May through September. The gas is a mix of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide cooked under sunlight. Produced primarily by automobile exhaust and fossil-fuel-burning power plants, it can cause lung damage, eye irritation, breathing difficulties and chest pain.

Heat and humidity are once again rolling across the mid-Atlantic states, causing another round of urban heat advisories and Code Red ozone alerts in Maryland today and worsening a drought already considered the second-worst in state history.Yesterday's high of 96 degrees at Baltimore-Washington International Airport was not a record, but weather forecasters expect more of the same, with highs reaching at least 90 degrees until the end of the week.Forecasters are worried about drought, not the heat.

For the first time in 1998, the Baltimore-area forecast calls for unhealthy levels of smog, as pollution percolates in the still air under cloudless skies.The Maryland Department of Environment has issued a "code orange" smog watch for today, predicting moderately unhealthy levels of air pollution.Forecasters blame the smog on a noxious brew of chemicals -- emissions from cars, lawn mowers, industrial smokestacks and even paint fumes -- that simmers under hot, clear skies to form potentially harmful ozone.

Marylanders should see cleaner air -- and perhaps slightly higher utility bills -- under a 22-state federal smog-reduction program that calls for the state to make some of the steepest pollution cuts on the East Coast.The air emissions rules, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday, are designed to reduce the amount of smog-causing ozone that flows from the Midwest and South toward the coast. The pollutants, which can travel hundreds of miles, make it difficult for Eastern states to clean up their dirty air and contribute to pollution of the Chesapeake Bay.The federal rules will require 22 states in the eastern third of the country to cut their emissions of nitrogen oxide, an ingredient of smog, by about 28 percent beginning in 2003.

With some of the highest temperatures of the summer predicted through Tuesday, Baltimore city's health department issued the year's first Code Red Heat Alert and announced Sunday that the city will open emergency cooling centers and provide free bus passes to help residents seek shelter from the heat. Interim Health Commissioner Olivia D. Farrow declared the alert after the National Weather Service forecast a potentially hazardous combination of high temperatures and humidity for the next two days.

Miller time, again State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller's decision to run for re-election in two years isn't terribly shocking. He's been acting (and fundraising) like a candidate for months. But it does raise a difficult question: When is enough enough for Maryland's longest-serving Senate president? Mr. Miller's headlock on his chamber is undeniable. He understands the politics of his colleagues (and the politics of most issues) better than anyone in Annapolis. The substance of issues does not seem to interest him nearly as much, but in the end, he generally gets his way. Maryland governors can serve no more than two terms.

Clem Florio, a former prize fighter and newspaper handicapper who was a fixture at Maryland race tracks for 40 years, died of pancreatic cancer Sunday at a Hollywood, Fla., hospice. He was 78. "He looked, spoke and acted like he stepped out of Guys and Dolls. He was Damon Runyon to the core," said Ross Peddicord of Frederick, The Sun's former racing writer. "Racing was his whole life, and he practically lived in the Pimlico, Laurel and Bowie press boxes." Born in Queens, N.Y., he grew up in Ozone Park near Aqueduct Raceway.

Vaccine Mumps outbreak could lead to 2nd booster shot Most of the college students who got the mumps in a big 2006 outbreak had received the recommended two vaccine shots, according to a study that raises questions about whether a new vaccine or another booster shot is needed. The outbreak was the biggest in the U.S. since states began requiring a second shot for youngsters in 1990. Nearly 6,600 people became sick with the mumps, mostly in eight Midwest states, and the hardest-hit group was college students.

Maryland has dirty air and it's going to stay dirty longer, thanks to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Once again, the Bush administration has chosen industry over science, and the public will pay the price. Shame on President Bush. EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson's decision last week to lower the pollution standard from 84 to 75 units of ozone for every billion units of air means improvements in air quality here will be slower than they should be. It was a judgment likely to save industry billions in pollution control investments but one with serious consequences for the health of thousands of Americans.

The first President Bush belittled Al Gore as "Ozone Man" for his early warning about the damage to the environment caused by human behavior. A decade later, the second President Bush sought to undermine a growing consensus that Mr. Gore's alarm should be heeded. Mr. Bush called instead for "sound science." There was no sign of gloating Friday, though, when the former vice president was awarded a most prestigious sign of vindication - a Nobel Peace Prize that affirmed not only the legitimacy of his views on global warming but also the threat that rapid climate change poses to world peace and security.

Bill Milne writes from sunny Sykesville: "Tell me about the UV Index. ... How much stronger is a value of 9 than a value of 7?" The UV Index, forecast below, is not a direct measure of ultraviolet radiation. It combines predictions of the sun's height at solar noon, atmospheric ozone (which blocks UV rays), local elevation and cloud cover, and estimates the UV dose rates to the skin. The World Health Organization says 0-2 is "low;" 3-5 is "moderate;" 6-7 is "high;" 8-10 is "very high." Just use sunblock.

The stifling 100-degree heat yesterday was on everyone's lips, if not actually trickling off their foreheads and running down their backs. As the sun beat down, demand for the electricity we need to churn our air conditioners and spin our fans soared. Final numbers were not immediately available, but "we are actually forecasting we could reach, or possibly exceed, the peak record we set last year on Aug. 3, 2006," said BGE spokeswoman Linda Foy. The heat and sunshine also combined with air pollution to push ozone levels northeast of Baltimore to "unhealthy" levels.

NEW YORK -- El Nuevo San Juan Health Center sits in a bathtub of vehicle exhaust, its South Bronx neighborhood boxed in by expressways and choked with traffic. Despite all the tailpipes, asthma hospitalization rates among children here have fallen by two-thirds over the past decade. Dr. Samuel De Leon, the clinic's medical director, says one reason is the drop in ozone air pollution since New York adopted California's tough vehicle emission standards. "The South Bronx is ground zero for asthma, with all of our trucks and traffic," said De Leon, a pulmonologist.

Joe Bollinger sent in this question via the WeatherBlog: "What is the prevailing wind direction for this region, and from which direction does it blow the least?" Interesting question. I managed to track down a "wind rose" valid for Baltimore during the "ozone season" - from April through October. It shows the wind blowing most frequently (and hardest) from the west-northwest, and least often from the north. But on days when ozone levels violate federal standards, they most often come from the west or southwest.