Exposure to Ozone can cause serious health problems

Ozone pollution exposure can have serious consequences as a recent study revealed that it damages human health, causing respiratory and other problems. According to a report from the US National Research Council (NRC), short term exposure to ozone, a key component of smog, is likely to contribute to premature deaths.

Deleterious effects of ozone should be considered while measuring the health benefits of reducing air pollution; concluded the report.

“The committee has concluded from its review of health-based evidence that short-term exposure to ambient ozone is likely to contribute to premature deaths,” said the 13-member panel. They added that “studies have yielded strong evidence that short-term exposure to ozone can exacerbate lung conditions, causing illness and hospitalization and can potentially lead to death.”

Looking at ground-level ozone, the researchers found that it does have an effect. “It’s small, but when you talk about a small effect over 300 million people, it’s a lot,” said Dr. Evelyn Talbott of the University of Pittsburgh, who worked on the study.

Previous studies have also linked deaths directly with variations in ozone levels. However, the White House officials assert that there is no clear indication of any connection between smog and premature deaths. The panel suggests that government agencies "should give little or no weight" to such wiles.

For the most part, the research committee tried to find out if there was a threshold level of ozone concentration in the air, below which there was no major threat to health. Although a universal threshold could not be determined, they said that if it exists, it lies below the current public health standard.

Individual threshold were also important since sensitivity to changes in ozone levels varies by individual and not everyone's risk of death changes with the same change in ozone concentration.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which sponsored the recent research, was highly condemned last month when it issued new federal smog standards that were tighter than previous standards but did not follow the recommendation of its own scientific advisory committee, which had called for even stricter standards to protect human health.

Environmental and government watch-dog groups believe the White House officials intervened to prevent the EPA from setting stronger standards that would have been more costly for industry.