Surface Ozone Vs. The Ozone Layer
Although the ozone found at the Earth's surface is the same chemical species as that found in the ozone layer, they have very different sources, atmospheric chemistry, and affect human health differently as well. The ozone layer protects people from the sun's most damaging ultraviolet rays. Because the ozone layer is located high in the atmosphere, people are not directly exposed to it.
Ground-level ozone, however, is a health hazard because people breathe it. It is formed through a complex set of chemical reactions involving hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and sunlight on calm summer days where the weather may also be warm and humid . High levels of ground ozone affects the breathing process and aggravates asthma in chronic sufferers. The young, elderly, and those with lung diseases are especially susceptible.
Ozone is most likely to exceed safety limits from May through October when seasonal heat and sunlight are at their highest . However, similar conditions can occur at other times of the year in specific urbanized areas; namely the Los Angeles area, which is well known for smog formation.
Read more about this topic: Ozone Action Day
Famous quotes containing the words surface and/or layer:
“Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift, through all the earth and perhaps in the end through a cliff into the sea, something of me.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“After a few months’ acquaintance with European “coffee,” one’s mind weakens, and his faith with it, and he begins to wonder if the rich beverage of home, with its clotted layer of yellow cream on top of it, is not a mere dream after all, and a thing which never existed.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)