Don't let ground-level ozone ruin your summer fun

Summer is definitely here. It’s hot, it’s sunny, it’s the time of year you want to be outside. With all that fun in the sun, though, can come a form of air pollution we’re definitely not excited about: ground-level ozone. 

Ecology keeps a close eye on ground-level ozone levels around Washington and issues advisories when levels rise to a point that could affect people’s health. Let’s talk about what ground-level ozone is, what it can do to your health, how you can help prevent it, and how to find out when levels are unhealthy.

Why should I care about ground-level ozone?

First, let’s distinguish the difference in ozone and ground-level ozone.

• “Good” ozone forms naturally one to 30 miles above the Earth’s surface. This ozone layer protects life from the sun’s harmful rays.
• “Bad” ozone forms at ground-level. It is the main ingredient of smog and can cause a plethora of health problems.

Today, we are going to talk about how ground-level ozone forms, the health problems it causes, and what to do about it.

How it forms

Ground-level ozone is a gas created by a chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of sunlight. Vehicle and industrial emissions, gasoline vapors, chemical solvents, and natural sources emit NOx and VOCs that help form ground-level ozone. 

Obviously, urban areas will see higher amounts of ground-level ozone because they tend to have more air pollutants. But rural areas may not be spared from the health effects of it. Ground-level ozone takes time to form, and while it’s forming the wind can carry it far away. So, even if you live in the country, you can still be exposed to ground-level ozone.

What it can do to your health

Unhealthy amounts of ground-level ozone can affect everyone, but people with lung disease, children, older adults, and people who are physically active are especially sensitive. Ground-level ozone can:

• Irritate your throat.
• Cause coughing, wheezing, and painful breathing.
• Inflame and permanently damage lung tissue.
• Aggravate asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.
• Increase the likelihood of pneumonia and bronchitis.

To protect your health, do less strenuous activities outdoors or stay inside until it cools down. If you experience serious symptoms, see your doctor.

How you can help reduce ground-level ozone

On hot days when ground-level ozone is expected to reach unhealthy levels, take these extra steps to help reduce air pollution:

• Drive less. Combine errands or use public transportation.
• Switch to a zero emissions vehicle, walk, or ride a bike.
• Postpone travel until the weather cools when possible.
• Don’t use lawnmowers or other small engines during heat spells.
• Follow burn bans.
• Don’t barbecue or use your fire pit while it’s hot out.
• Don’t let your engine idle.
• Refuel your vehicle in the early mornings.
• Don’t paint or use aerosol sprays until temperatures cool off.

When it gets hot outside, keep an eye on Ecology’s Facebook page or Twitter account for air quality advisories or check Washington’s Air Quality Monitoring Network. 

To learn more about ground-level ozone and other air quality topics, visit Ecology’s website.
 
By Kim Vaughn / Air Quality

Clean Air Month - Part 3

Last time we discussed concrete and practical ways to protect the air we breathe on a more personal level. In today's final blog, we’re looking at how our actions cumulatively impact the world. Our state is a leader in responding to climate issues. Learn more as we continue to celebrate Clean Air.

Clean energy
Concerns about climate change, the use of fossil fuels, and air pollution are accelerating clean energy development. Approximately two-thirds of Washington’s electric is generated from hydropower? Washington also ranks as one of the top nationwide producers of wind power. It’s also becoming more popular and affordable to use solar power for your home needs. 

Check with your local utility provider or find a clean energy non-profit group for possible incentives or grants. 

Use alternative transportation
Vehicle emissions are one of the main sources of air pollution in Washington. You can help reduce emissions by participating in the following: 

• Share a ride with others, carpool, or take a bus.
• Ride your bike. Your heart will thank you!
• Don’t let your car idle.
• Be the first on your block to buy a Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV).

Drive an electric vehicle
ZEVs, or electric vehicles, are gaining in popularity and the savings to your pocketbook, health, and environment add up quick. Imagine not having to get an oil change or stop and pay for gas! 

Charging an electric vehicle is getting easier too! There is a significant effort to build the infrastructure to support the use of electric vehicles.

For example: the West Coast Electric Highway is an extensive network of electric vehicle (EV) DC fast charging stations located every 25 to 50 miles along Interstate 5 and other major roadways in the Pacific Northwest. Planning your trip just got easier with this map of Washington charging stations. 

If you are heading outside the Pacific Northwest you can check out the Department of Energy maps of electric vehicle charging stations and alternative fueling locations nationwide.

Keeping our mission alive
Air quality is vital to our agency’s mission to protect and enhance the environment today and for future generations. And you are a part of that mission as well – as businesses, industries, communities, families and individuals. Thanks for helping us celebrate Clean Air in the month of May!

By Kim Vaughn | Air Quality

Baby, it’s cold outside

There’s nothing like a fire to warm you to the core, right? 
Wait — not so fast. Did you check to see if there’s a burn ban before lighting that fire?

Wood smoke is one of the main sources of air pollution in Washington. In the winter, it contributes to more than half of Washington’s fine particle air pollution.

What causes a burn ban?

In the winter, unhealthy levels of wood smoke in the air are caused by a weather pattern called an inversion that causes stagnant air to trap smoke close to the ground. The landscape and the number of homes using wood heat are also factors. When pollution reaches unhealthy levels determined by state and federal health-based standards, air quality agencies call an air quality burn ban to protect your health.

An air quality burn ban (aka home heating burn ban) has two stages:

Stage 1 burn ban

• No use of uncertified wood stoves or fireplaces is allowed. 
• No outdoor burning, agricultural, or forest burning is allowed. 

Stage 2 burn ban

• No burning indoors or outdoors is allowed, unless wood is your only source of heat. 

Air quality burn bans last only as long as it takes to get air quality back to a healthier level.

What you can do

If you use wood to heat your house:

• Use a Washington-certified wood burning device. 
• Burn only dry wood. 
• Obey wood burning rules. 
• Check for a burn ban in your area.

Health effects of wood smoke

Wood stoves and fireplaces give off hundreds of times more air pollution than other sources of heat like natural gas or electricity. The smoke and soot from burning wood contain fine particles and harmful gases, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and organic compounds. These gases can cause cancer and other health problems. The fine particles are so small that they lodge deep in our lungs when we inhale them and can cause serious health problems, including:

• Asthma attacks. 
• Bronchitis. 
• Respiratory infections. 
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). 
• Lung cancer. 
• Irregular heart beat. 
• Heart attacks. 
• Cardiovascular disease.
• Stroke.

Who is hurt by wood smoke?

Wood smoke can affect anyone, causing symptoms such as burning eyes, a runny nose, coughing, and bronchitis. Kids, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with existing lung disease (like asthma and COPD) or heart disease are the most sensitive to wood smoke. Research shows that obesity or diabetes may also increase a person’s risk of experiencing health effects.

Back in the day

Air quality agencies began limiting the use of wood stoves in 1987 to “control, reduce, and prevent air pollution caused by wood stove emissions.” In 1996, smoke from wood stoves made up 11 percent of our air pollution. That’s 231,000 tons of carbon monoxide, 75,000 tons of volatile organic compounds, and 31,000 tons of fine particles! By 1998, 10 counties — Benton, Clark, Franklin, King, Pierce, Snohomish, Spokane, Thurston, Walla Walla, and Yakima — had air quality that exceeded federal health-based standards. Not all of these areas exceeded standards only because of wood smoke, but other types of air pollution add to the problem.

When an area exceeds federal health-based standards, it is called a nonattainment area. As recently as 2009, part of Tacoma-Pierce County was a nonattainment area because it consistently had unhealthy levels of air pollution from wood smoke. As of the end of 2017, all counties in Washington are in attainment with air quality standards.

Do your part to keep our air healthy, and keep air quality burn bans shorter and less frequent. We’ll all breathe more easily during the winter.

 By Miriam Duerr | Air Quality

The best solution is less pollution … 50 years of the Clean Air Act

(This is the second post of a three-part series.) 

Fifty years ago, Washington’s Clean Air Act was adopted in order to improve air quality for

Washingtonians. Since that time, much has been done to reduce harmful pollutants that effect our environment and people’s health. 

One of the many benefits of the good work started years ago, if maintained, is that that you, and future generations, can enjoy our majestic mountain wilderness areas. 

Seeing clearly through the haze

If you’ve ever looked out at Mt. Rainier, or any other scenic vista from far away and it appears hazy or blurry, chances are, those aren’t clouds blocking your view. It’s likely air pollution, also referred to as regional haze, and it’s one of the many air quality issues we’ve been working to improve.

Regional haze is formed by particulate matter that absorbs and scatters light. It can travel a

The same view with different amounts of
particulate matter in the air.

very long distance and individual particles are too small to see with your eyes. The more particles in the air, the harder it is to see far away. It also can cause serious health problems when inhaled. 

What makes up air pollution?

Air pollution and smoke are made up of hundreds of different complex mixtures of gases and fine particles; like soot, dust, and dirt.

Many of these mixtures contain harmful primary pollutants like: 

• Sulfur dioxides. Gases that form when sulfur is exposed to oxygen at high temperatures during fossil fuel combustion, volcanic eruptions, oil refining, or metal smelting. At high concentrations it can dissolve in clouds and chemically combine with oxygen to form sulfuric acid, otherwise known as acid rain. 
• Nitrogen oxides. A group of gases composed of nitrogen and oxygen. Two of the most common nitrogen oxides are nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Nitrogen oxides are produced by the burning of fuels from many things such as vehicles, power plants, industrial, commercial and manufacturing facilities.
• Volatile organic compounds. These are chemicals that can easily become vapors or gases. Along with carbon, they contain elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, sulfur, or nitrogen. Gasoline-burning engines are a major source but they are also found in many products used daily, such as paint and household cleaners. 

When nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds interact in sunlight, they create ground-level ozone, a secondary pollutant. Ground-level ozone is a harmful, colorless, and highly irritating gas that forms just above the Earth's surface. This is not the same as stratospheric ozone in the upper atmosphere that protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

Effects of pollutants on the environment

Even though many of these compounds are found in nature, having too many of them can:

• Make lakes and streams acidic; harming aquatic life and economically damage fishing industries. 
• Change nutrient balances in water and soil; causing damage that can’t be repaired. 
• Cause damage to forests; resulting in a loss of wildlife habitat.
• Damage crops; resulting in economic loss. 
• Contribute to acid rain; that stains and erodes monuments.  
• Affect the diversity of ecosystems; by limiting their ability to function and grow, such as during oxygen-robbing algal blooms.

Effect of pollutants on human health

Air pollutants, like fine particles and ozone, can harm people’s health. As pollution levels rise, the number of trips to the doctor due to pollution-related illnesses may also increase. Air pollution is a real public health concern because it can cause or contribute to serious health problems like:

• Headaches
• Premature death in people with heart or lung disease.
  
• Heart attacks.
• Irregular heartbeat.
• Aggravated asthma symptoms.
• Decreased lung function.
• Irritation of the eyes and airways causing coughing or difficulty breathing.
• Respiratory infections
• Cancer.
• Increased health care costs.

People at the most risk are children, pregnant women, the elderly, and those with cardiovascular or respiratory disease. Health effect research shows that death rates in several U.S. cities increased when there were higher levels of particulate matter in the air. 

Coming soon

Our third and final blog will discuss things you can do to minimize your contribution to air pollution and what Ecology is doing to protect human health and the environment. Working together, we can ensure healthy air for another 50 years and future generations!
If you’re interested in seeing what the air quality is like in your community, check out our monitors your area by visiting Washington’s Air Monitoring Network. 

To learn more about the history of our state's Clean Air Act visit WaCleanAir50.org

Part I: We’ve come a long way baby … celebrating 50 years of the Clean Air Act

Part 3: A breath of fresh air ... 50 years of the Clean Air Act

By Kim Allen, Air Quality

wacleanair50.org