How does ozone pollution lead to economic damage?

Ozone pollution does not only have negative environmental impact but can also lead to sizable  negative economic impact. The latest study by the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia's University claims that ozone pollution, even at levels below current air-quality standards in most parts of the world, has significant negative impacts on worker productivity.

What this means is that that environmental protection also plays vital role in promoting economic growth and that quality of environment needs to be at high level in order to ensure optimal economic results.

The optimal levels of ozone are still being heavily discussed among researchers from all over the world. Many previous studies have concluded that regulating ozone pollution levels leads to many health benefits like less hospitalizations and decreased mortality rates but this was the first study that proved the direct link between ozone pollution and worker productivity.

The researchers have calculated that a 10 ppb (parts per billion) change in average ozone exposure results in a significant 5.5 percent change in agricultural worker productivity. What this means is that ozone pollution could significantly reduce total economic output of workers that are exposed to high levels of ozone.

The additional importance of this study is in the fact that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently in plans to reduce federal ground-level ozone standards. The U.S.President Obama recently announced that he would not support Environmental Protection Agency efforts to tighten the federal ozone standard because this would be a big burden for business. This statement has, of course, stunned environmentalists and health experts who were expecting better understanding from the President Obama.

Dr Matthew Neidell, lead author of this study particularly warned about the situation in developing countries where environmental regulations are less strict and where agriculture plays a lot more important role in the economy, meaning that the effects of excessive ozone pollution  could severely impact economic prosperity of these countries.

Ozone pollution could decrease global food production

Ozone isn't always categorized as one of the harmful pollutants, in fact whether ozone should be regarded as a pollutant or not primarily depends on its location or in other words how high is it- in the upper atmosphere ozone isn't pollutant and helps protects Earth's surface from dangerous UV radiation, while at the ground level ozone is major pollutant that does considerable damage to our environment as well as our health.

There have been several major researches studying the connection between ozone pollution and plants, most notably food crops. With approximately one billion hungry people in the worlds the last thing we need is reduced food production.

How does ozone hurt plants? For starters, increased concentrations of ozone can significantly slow photosynthesis and accelerate senescence. The result of this is that plant absorbs less carbon which results in lower yield.

Lisa Ainsworth, a University of Illinois associate professor, says that „ground level ozone concentrations are already high enough to significantly damage crop production.“ Ozone concentrations are highest on sunny and warm days because those are ideal conditions for ozone formation.

Ozone has a damaging effect on food crops

She also added that as the concentrations of ozone grow, plants can get leaf bronzing, stippling of the leaves, and necrotic spots, and the really high concentrations of ozone result in cell death.

Ozone reacts very quickly once it enters the leaf of the plant, meaning that plants do not have much time to develop tolerance towards the ozone pollution.

Many areas in the world have increased concentrations of ozone, especially fast developing economies such as China and India. Excessive air pollution in these areas is already resulting in significant yield losses, and this could in years to come lead to even more hunger in the world.

The damaging effect that ozone has on food crops could play major role in global food production. In order for ozone not to interfere with the amount of future yields we will either have to decrease the levels of ozone pollution or turn to science to make plants more tolerant to increased ozone concentrations.

Antarctica still experiencing ozone depletion

The ozone layer has very important function for all life on our planet by protecting the Earth's surface from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The levels of ozone-depleting chemicals have been shrinking since the 1987 Montreal protocol but there is still a significant ozone hole over Antarctica.

The scientists have measured that this year's Antarctic ozone hole reached its annual peak on September 12, by covering 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest on record. This year's lowest ozone level readings were recorded on October 9 and were 102 Dobson units.

The levels of ozone-depleting chemicals have been steadily declining in the last two decades but many of these chemicals have very long lifespan, and can remain in atmosphere for decades.

Many scientists across the globe believe that ozone layer has already started its recovery. In fact according to the current atmospheric models by the World Meteorological Organization it is expected that stratospheric ozone could recover by the middle of this century. However, the ozone hole above Antarctica could still persist two decades beyond that and should completely disappear somewhere around 2070.

The ozone layer recovery trend isn't expected to go smoothly because of natural cycles in temperatures and several other factors that affect depletion of the ozone.

The scientists have observed ozone depletion phenomena for more than 30 years and the most expressed decrease in ozone has been in the lower stratosphere. The chemicals mostly responsible for ozone depletion are chlorofluorocarbons.

The ozone hole occurs during the Antarctic spring, from August/September to early December, as strong circumpolar winds start to circulate around the continent and create an atmospheric container. Most years, the conditions for ozone depletion ease by early December, and the seasonal ozone hole closes.

The measurements tracking ozone depletion are made from the ground, in the atmosphere itself and by satellite. NASA, for instance, measures ozone levels in the stratosphere with the help of Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard the Aura satellite.

Ground level ozone pollution facts

Ozone pollution is the term that refers to air pollution caused by ground-formed ozone. This is usually the result of interaction between the car exhaust fumes and sunlight.

This kind of pollution is harmful to humans and even more harmful to plants because they are much more sensitive to ozone. The bigger concentration of ozone in the air means bigger damage to plants. The researchers have recently concluded that the ozone damage to plants is the highest in Central Europe because of very high ozone concentrations.

This negative effect that ozone pollution has on plants is causing significant reduction in agricultural yields in many parts of the world and could even lead to serious food shortages.

The U.S. city most affected with ozone pollution is Houston with the ozone readings at of around 41 nmol/mol.

The rise of ozone pollution is adding to climate change and global warming because it disrupts plant's ability to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The scientists have discovered that the concentration of ground-level ozone has doubled since 1850 mostly because of the increased amount of chemical emissions coming from vehicles, industrial processes, and the burning of forests.

Ground level ozone is an air pollutant only at ground level. In atmosphere at a height of 10-40 kilometers above Earth's surface ozone plays major role in protecting our planet from dangerous sun's ultraviolet rays without which there wouldn't be life on Earth.

Ozone pollution contributes to climate change

Ozone pollution is not just one of the most serious forms of air pollution, but it can also contribute to climate change impact. Pollutants that cause the creation of ozone are nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds that mostly come from our cars, and once these pollutants enter the atmosphere they create ozone, a potent greenhouse gas.

Ozone pollution has been pretty much overlooked when talking about the climate change, but its impact cannot be underestimated. This is because too much ozone in atmosphere can seriously damage plants, making them less effective at photosynthesizing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and storing it in the ground, which can lead to increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.

What this means is that ozone pollution doesn't have a direct impact on climate change, but can still give significant impact to global warming by preventing plants to effectively take CO2 from the atmosphere.

The damaging effect that ozone has on plants has been well known but science hasn't up to now talked about the connection between the climate change and ozone pollution. Dr Bill Collins of the Met Office Hadley Centre and his research team have proved this connection by running a a sequence of models to predict the effects of three ozone pollutants –nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) – on the Earth's temperature.

The scientists discovered that different pollutants have different effects over time, and for instance CO2 lasts for a very long time in the atmosphere while on the other hand ozone has much shorter lifespan, and its effects do not last very long in the atmosphere.

However, even this shorter lifespan can create serious damage to plants, and this is the main reason why climate change models should also include the ozone plant damage into their calculations.

Ozone pollution - Definition and causes

In order to properly define ozone pollution we first need to define ozone. Ozone is molecule of three oxygen atoms bound together (O3), and it is highly unstable and poisonous. We also need to know that ozone is not always bad, and the ozone that is responsible for ozone pollution is ozone at ground level, while there is also so called "good ozone" in the upper Earth's atmosphere that protects us from harmful UV radiation. What this means is that term ozone pollution refers to high concentration of ozone at ground level.

Many people think that ozone pollution forms only in urban and suburban areas but this is not entirely true as ozone pollution can also occur in rural areas though not that often.

Ozone pollution can lead to serious health damage, and lead to several respiratory diseases. This is because ozone is highly corrosive at the ground, and once inhaled it damages the bronchioles and alveoli in your lungs. People worst affected by ozone pollution are the ones that already suffer with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma.

Ozone pollution is especially harmful for children because they are more exposed to it by spending most of their time outdoors. The doctors warn that damage caused to the developing body of a child by high concentration of ozone can happen much faster than damage to an adult, and leading to serious respiratory problems throughout the life.

How to protect yourself and your children from ozone pollution? The first you need to know is that each and every one of us can do something to reduce the ozone pollution, for instance by not using our cars during afternoon and early evening hours in the late spring, summer and early fall. Prevention is as always the best possible protection, and ozone is on exception.

Our cars and industries emit harmful organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxide gases (NOx) that combined with high temperatures and enough sunlight result in ozone pollution, which in cases when ozone concentration is very high leads to creation of smog in urban areas.

Ozone still threat in UK

With recent talk about climate change people are slowly forgetting about ozone problem that was not so long rated one of the biggest ecological problems. But ozone problem hasn't gone, in fact latest research in UK showed that ozone levels which not only contributes to global warming but is also a cause of hundreds of deaths a year from different respiratory illnesses - are both rising at an alarming rate.

Ozone is worst kind of air pollution produced by the impact of sunlight on different atmospheric pollutants, especially car exhausts. Ozone problem is especially expressed during hot summers, in areas polluted with nitrogen oxides and volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) mostly emitted by vehicles that produce peak levels of ozone. There is difference between ozone in the stratosphere, which protects Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation unlike the dangerous ozone in the lower atmosphere that is harmful to humans, animals and plants.

EU has already introduced some measures that should reduce that should help reduce these pollutants, most notably three-way converters that are fitted to cars. This has significantly help reducing ozone production in Europe but big countries like India, China and Russia are still emitting heavily, and ozone produced from these nations is constantly being blown over UK. In 2003 ozone caused more than 1,500 deaths in the UK - especially among children and elderly citizens- and that figure is set to rise to alarming 2,400 a year by 2020.

Not only human health is directly affected by ozone but there is also a serious negative impact on plants because once ozone enters plants through respiratory pores in their leaves it has negative effect on their ability to photosynthesise foodstuffs, resulting in weak and undersized plants, which is of course extremely damaging to crops. For instance some estimates say that in year 2000, ozone caused £5bn damage to crops in Europe.

Ozone's negative impact on global warming is known for some years now as ozone helps raise the temperature of the atmosphere and what is even worse it reduces the planet's ability to cope with other greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. So what to do with the ozone problem? The only successful action would be some sort of an international agreement that would include major emitting countries because local actions are not enough because weather systems and jet streams transport ozone to many countries worldwide. However there is still no sign of some international agreement, nor any significant efforts that should lead to this sort of agreement.