Lethal build up of Ozone is double trouble for the UK

The Observer reports that Britain is ignoring the dangers posed by one of the world’s worst air pollutants: ozone. At high atmmosphere levels the gas is a vital block against the sun’s ultraviolet rays (remember worries about the ‘ozone hole’ a few years ago?). At ground level the gas is a serious pollutant and researchers say that levels of the gas - which is also a powerful contributor to global warming - are rising at an alarming rate. They have also warned that measures to curtail the gas are failing. As a result, ozone-related respiratory illnesses and deaths (of which there are about 1,500 a year in the UK) could rise by 50 per cent over the next decade. Stronger international treaties need to be set up to counter the threat, they insist. ‘A lot more interest needs to be taken in ozone - not only as a cause of global warming but as an immediate threat to human health and to the environment,’ said Professor Piers Foster of Leeds University, an author of the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. ‘It could have a significant impact on the planet.’ zone is produced by the impact of sunlight on atmospheric pollutants, including car exhausts, and is strongly associated with smogs caused by traffic fumes. Hot summers, in areas polluted with nitrogen oxides and volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) emitted by vehicles, produce peak levels of ozone. The EU has introduced measures to reduces these pollutants, mainly by ensuring three-way converters are fitted to cars, and this has helped reduce ozone production in Europe. But countries such as Russia, China and India are still major emitters, and ozone from these nations is constantly being blown over Britain. As a result, levels are continuing to rise at a rate of 6 per cent per decade. Rising production of ozone is alarming because the gas is the third biggest contributor to global warming. Only carbon dioxide and methane have bigger impacts. But unlike them ozone also affects health. It is a powerful oxidant and damages lung tissue. In 2003 it caused more than 1,500 deaths in the UK - mainly among children and the elderly - and that figure is set to rise to about 2,400 a year by 2020. In addition, the gas has a serious impact on the ecology. Ozone enters plants through respiratory pores in their leaves and harms their ability to photosynthesise foodstuffs. Plants are left weak and undersized and unable to absorb C02, adding to greenhouse gas problems. It is estimated that in 2000, ozone caused £5bn damage to crops in Europe, a figure that is rising by the year.

See the full story online at  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/19/climatechange-health-ozone