As Laura Arenschield of the The Columbus Dispatch pointed out in her April 1 article, along with these beautiful spring blooms and warm weather comes the beginning of ozone season. While many of you will remember last summer's wonderful mild temperatures here on the east coast, this also meant a reduced ozone hazard, something not all of us may think about on a daily basis if we don't have a higher sensitivity. In fact, central Ohio went the entire summer without having to issue one single air quality warning!
However, last summer we were quite lucky with the way our temperatures never seemed to spiral out of control like I have seen in summers past. Who knows what this year may hold! And since it is the start of ozone season, I would love to pass along some great resources to help us all better understand the threats presented by high levels of ozone. Frankly, I didn't know all of the science behind it, and while it might the espresso talking (Thank you, Rhea, for your wonderful office gift to me and Molly!), it was pretty cool to see the effects of different levels of ground-level ozone.
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| In case you're trying to wave your nerd flag with me and Molly, check out this page from NASA with a more sciencey tilt! |
Click here to read the CDC's page on air contaminants, the first of which gives some pretty grand details about ozone safety and populations who need to be particularly careful. Looking through this, I learned that you do not need to have a sensitive respiratory system to be more vulnerable to ozone. In fact, as a runner and as someone with an outdoor restaurant job, since I am outside as much as I am, I need to have an elevated consciousness of my ozone exposure as well. Other sensitive populations include anyone with a sensitive respiratory system, as well as older individuals, children and infants.
Looking for an easy way to check the air quality in your area? Look no further! Another amazing resource I found this morning is AirNow.Gov, where you can see the air quality not only for the entire country, but also in further detail for your local area just by typing in your zip code. Click here to check it out!
As always, stay safe, Charlotte, and enjoy your wonderful cloudy Wednesday! And, since you know we can't go without sharing a corny song with minimal relevance, enjoy some Phil Collins. The video's pretty weird, and we're pretty into it.
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