Ozone ground level, effects

N02 plays a major role in the chemical reactions which generate photochemical smog and ground-level ozone, as well as contributes to the acid rain effect. Nitrogen dioxide is a strong oxidizing agent, which reacts in the air to form corrosive nitric acid, as well as... 

The revealed preference method is an indirect approach that is used in order to monetize use values. This method observes the real choice between money and the environmental goods. Methods often include observations of consumers or producers behaviour or actions, such as the hedonic price method and the production function method. The hedonic price method determines values from actual market transactions. These transactions are used to see how the price of a market commodity varies when a related environmental good changes, such as the effects of noise or air pollution on house prices. The production function method is used to estimate the value of the environmental effects on production. This method is suitable when consumption or production of a private good is affected by the environmental good. An example is the valuation of ground-level ozone levels by valuing the impact on the production of wheat or timber, which has market prices. The problem with the revealed preference method is that it does not contain all the individuals values that affect the WTP. 

The CASTNET provides atmospheric data on the dry deposition component of total acid deposition, ground-level ozone, and other forms of atmospheric pollution. CASTNET is considered the nation s primary source for atmospheric data to estimate dry acidic deposition and to provide data on rural ozone levels. Used in conjunction with other national monitoring networks, CASTNET is used to determine the effectiveness of national emission control programs. Established in 1987, CASTNET now comprises over 70 monitoring stations across the United States. The longest data records are primarily at eastern sites. The majority of the monitoring stations are operated by EPA s Office of Air and Radiation however, approximately 20 stations arc operated by the National Park Service in cooperation with EPA. 

The peroxide (ozone) forming effects of nitrous oxides near ground level as well as the carcinogenic components of Diesel exhaust are the reason Diesel engines have recently also been subjected to special emission guidelines. They supposedly pose a danger to human respiration. This is why the studies conducted in Germany of health hazards posed by Diesel exhaust were almost entirely confined to analyses of the proportions of smoke solids and non-combusted hydrocarbons.57... 

Ozone is found at high altitudes in such concentration that, pressurized in a cabin to ground level or near ground level pressure, it could exhibit harmful effects on man and material. Protecting factors, such as heating in the compressor, decomposition in contact with various substances, and use of oxygen masks, lessen such harmful effects considerably. But the existence of such a hazard has to be known. Studies on the toxic effect of ozone on man indicate that such effect is restricted to the respiratory tract. Man seems to be more sensitive than the usual laboratory animals. In sensitive persons, concentrations as low as 2 p.p.m. may cause severe irritation within less than 1 hour. 

Air pollution is an emerging important environmental problem in Asia as a whole, and especially in East Asia. Evergrowing emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ammonia and ground level ozone concentration in many big cities in this region make the people worry about the synergetic effects of various pollutants. 

The above mentioned urban air pollution in Asian cities drives the tropospheric chemical reactions. This tropospheric chemistry is dominated by the oxidation of trace atmospheric components, as aresult ofwhich organic compounds such as methane and other hydrocarbons are converted into carbon dioxide and water. The consequences of these chemical transformations are known as photochemical smog (photosmog) and the associated problem of ground level ozone. Here we should consider also the effects of particulate matter, one of the major pollutants of urban air in Asia. 

Broadway BT, MacPhail J and Jacobson C (1998) Ontario Medical Association position paper on health effects of ground-level ozone, acid aerosols and particulate matter. Can Resp J 5 367-384. 

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