Although ozone pollution is dropping across many parts of the United States, western Europe and Japan, many people living in those countries still experience numerous days every year in which levels of the lung irritant exceed health-based standards.
Although ozone pollution is dropping across many parts of the United States, western Europe and Japan, many people living in those countries still experience numerous days every year in which levels of the lung irritant exceed health-based standards.
That's one conclusion from a new health assessment based on the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report or TOAR, an effort by the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project to create the world’s most comprehensive database of surface ozone observations from all available ozone monitoring stations around the globe. The paper was published February 5 in the journal Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene.
The international scientists who compiled and analyzed the global ozone pollution database hope it will give scientists and public health managers better insight on trends and patterns of human health exposure around the world.
“TOAR is not just a report,” said Owen Cooper, a CIRES scientist working at NOAA who chairs the TOAR Steering Committee and has been working to develop the assessment since 2014. “We created the largest database of surface ozone from hourly observations at more than 4,800 monitoring sites worldwide, and we’re making these data freely available to anyone who wants to investigate the impact of ozone on human health, vegetation, and climate.”
Continue reading at NOAA.
Image via NOAA.
