Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Dina Freedman ReportingThe recent wild fires aren't helping the air quality. We are on alert; the big culprit is Ozone.
When we talk about Ozone, you hear two things, one is that the Ozone layer has a hole on it and the second is that the air quality today isn't so great because of the Ozone. This is confusing! There are two types of Ozone and they both affect our health, a saying to remember which does what, from the EPA, is "Good up high, bad nearby".
It's getting a little hazy outside and we're under a Yellow Air Alert day, this means that our air quality isn't great and that's because of Ozone.
Barry Horne: "I'm aware of it, but it hasn't really affected my daily life."
You might be wondering, will it affect me, should I care about this, or should I do anything about it?
Jeff Larsen, Salt Lake City: "It would have to be the point where you would see a brown nasty haze over the whole valley, that might make me think twice about it."
Ok, first of all, let's clear the air about the two types of Ozone, good and bad. The good stuff is up high in the atmosphere and actually helps protect us from dangerous UV rays.
Bad Ozone forms where we live from Oxides of Nitrogen, Volatile Organic Compounds, Sunlight and heat, and that's what's happening this afternoon.
This nasty Ozone reacts with molecules inside our lungs and make it hard to breathe.
Donna Spangler, Dept. of Environmental Quality: "Ozone is an irritant to your lungs. So if you look at it, it's kind of like a sunburn, it will burn your lungs. So even a healthy person who goes out and breathes in this gas will damage their lungs."
Stephanie Bunderson: "In the winter I usually try to avoid the hazy weather, but in the summer, when the weather is nicer, I usually don't let it affect my exercising habits."
Sound familiar? But it's not just people with breathing problems that need to take it easy today either, active adults are also at risk.
Donna Spangler, Dept. of Environmental Quality: "If a person tries to run during high ozone levels, what they're going to experience is kind of a swelling of the lungs. And what that will mean physically is a shortness of breathe, physically being weak, not having the energy or the stamina."
Children and exercising adults exert themselves, and this means more contaminated air going into the body.
Here's what you can do, don't exert yourself during the afternoon and early evening hours. Another really easy thing that people can do if you want to help cut down on pollution is to fill up your gas tank in the cooler, evening hours and be careful not to spill. Those fumes from the gas pump help create more bad ozone.
And of course, when you're filling up that tank tonight, you'll have your car full of people because we should be car pooling right now to cut down on vehicle emissions.
