The air out there: City's air quality may affect health

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Although Springfield's air quality hasn't set off any regulatory alarms yet, pollution monitoring records show that it's getting dirtier.|ret||ret||tab|

The culprit is ground-level ozone, the colorless gaseous stew formed on hot summer days when sunlight produces a reaction between chemical compounds emitted primarily by motor vehicles, factories and power plants.|ret||ret||tab|

A key ingredient in what most people know as smog, ozone also is the most harmful to human health among the measured and regulated urban air pollutants, environmental and health officials say.|ret||ret||tab|

Ozone is a "powerful respiratory irritant," according to a Missouri Department of Natural Resources publication, and at high concentrations it can cause "coughing, chest discomfort, decreased pulmonary function, respiratory tract and eye irritation."|ret||ret||tab|

"Our air is not as pristine as some people might believe," said Karl Barke, director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department's air quality division. "We have communicated with (DNR air quality officials) and the (Environmen-tal Protection Agency) and are in the process of attempting to get the word out."|ret||ret||tab|

The Health Department is developing an educational brochure on air quality, and it has asked local television stations to consider broadcasting daily air quality reports that are available from the state, Barke said.|ret||ret||tab|

The increase in ozone promp-ted the American Lung Asso-ciation to downgrade Greene County's air quality. In its State of the Air 2001 report issued in early May, the association gave the county a "C" on the basis of ozone counts for 1997-99. That was down from a "B" in the 2000 report, covering 1996-98.|ret||ret||tab|

The "B" reflected two measurements the group called "un-healthy for sensitive groups," which includes children 14 and younger, adults 65 and older, and people with asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. The "C" reflected high ozone levels in 1999 which the association terms just plain "un-healthy."|ret||ret||tab|

"Springfield's health obviously remains threatened by air pollution," said Joe Gilman, executive director of the American Lung Association of western Missouri, in a news release on the association's 2001 air report.|ret||ret||tab|

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Ozone monitoring|ret||ret||tab|

While ozone pollution can affect community health, it may also affect economic health. Under federal air quality law, a locale violating the ozone standard is told by regulators to clean up the air or face possible economic sanctions including restrictions on industrial development and a loss of federal highway funds.|ret||ret||tab|

Springfield hasn't reached that point yet. But during the past 12 years, ozone measurements taken by the Springfield-Greene County Health Department's air quality division have crept up toward the legal limit. |ret||ret||tab|

Twice in the past three years the ozone concentration hit the allowable maximum for a one-hour average in a day, the data shows.|ret||ret||tab|

In 1998, and again in 1999, a one-hour average reached .12 parts per million, which is the legal "exceedance standard" for ozone. It takes four or more of those exceedances at the same monitoring site in three consecutive years to constitute a legal violation. |ret||ret||tab|

The Springfield exceedances occurred at two different sites. Nevertheless, air-quality watchers are concerned about the increasing ozone pollution problem.|ret||ret||tab|

And while the effects of ozone on health are known, there is no established system for tracking the number of people complaining of health problems or seeking special treatment that might be related to periods of high ozone, said Kevin Gipson, environmental health specialist for the Health Department.|ret||ret||tab|

Barke said the Springfield air may be even closer to exceeding another federal ozone pollution standard, the "fourth maximum daily 8-hour average." |ret||ret||tab|

That standard, which he terms "more reflective of the medical side" of ozone, is .08 parts per million. It has been reached here twice in the past three years (three consecutive exceedances is the limit) Barke said. National enforcement , however, has been blocked by litigation since 1999.|ret||ret||tab|

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Where ozone comes from|ret||ret||tab|

Ozone, according to DNR and EPA publications, is the product of volatile organic compounds combining with nitrogen oxides in the presence of heat and light.|ret||ret||tab|

Motor vehicles, chemical plants, refineries, factories, consumer and commercial products, other industries and natural sources all produce various volatile organic compound emissions. Nitrogen oxides come from motor vehicles, power plants, and other sources of combustion, with natural contributors being lightning and biological processes in the soil.|ret||ret||tab|

(Although motor vehicles are a major ozone contributor, lawn mowers can have an impact with their relatively dirtier emissions, according to the experts. The California EPA in 1999 reported that a gasoline-powered lawn mower running for an hour puts out about the same amount of smog-forming emissions as 40 new automobiles running for an hour.)|ret||ret||tab|

Changing weather patterns contribute to yearly differences in ozone concentrations, and the pollution can also be transported by air currents from other locales. In the Springfield area, air pollution from major factories and power plants appears to be declining in some instances (see related story on page 3), according to data reported to state and federal air quality offices.|ret||ret||tab|

Barke speculates that increasing motor vehicle traffic is a primary reason for the Springfield ozone pollution increase. A DNR computer modeling study conducted a couple of years ago indicated that motor vehicles here put out 11 tons of volatile organic compounds per year for every two tons from industrial sources.|ret||ret||tab|

Although it appears there are no systematic annual estimates of motor vehicle miles driven locally, a figure for 1990 showed it to be about 4.3 million miles, according to Teri Whitmore of the Springfield city planning office.|ret||ret||tab|

When the computer study was done a couple of years ago, the figure used was about 4.5 million miles, according to DNR data.|ret||ret||tab|

Another ozone factor, Barke said, is the rise in nitrogen dioxide emissions over the past several years. Vehicles are probably the culprit in that, too, he said.|ret||ret||tab|

The boom in the number of sport utility vehicles (SUVs), vans and pickup trucks on the roads is also fueling more pollution, air quality watchers say. |ret||ret||tab|

Federal emission standards for certain of those vehicles are much more lenient than for cars. The heaviest SUVs and trucks are allowed to emit about 30 percent more hydrocarbons and 100 percent more nitrogen oxides than passenger cars. |ret||ret||tab|

New rules scheduled to go into effect in a couple of years are supposed to eliminate those gaps.|ret||ret||tab|

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The non-attainment nightmare|ret||ret||tab|

St. Louis is a vivid example of what happens when an area gets into trouble with ozone. The St. Louis metropolitan area, which includes several counties in Missouri and two in Illinois, was first declared an ozone "non-attainment area" about 20 years ago for its chronic poor air quality that violated exceedance standards.|ret||ret||tab|

Since then, it has been in the throes of regulatory watch-dogging and ozone reduction management that has, at times, resulted in angry local denial and resistance, and pitched regulatory, legal and political battles. |ret||ret||tab|

That included a threat in recent years to impose economic sanctions because of unsatisfactory improvement in air quality.|ret||ret||tab|

More vigorous use of motor vehicle emissions testing, maintenance and repair, along with the requirement that motorists use reformulated, cleaner-burning gasoline, have helped the St. Louis area make strides. |ret||ret||tab|

Last year, for instance, there was only one reported ozone exceedance, which compares to as many as 25 six years earlier.|ret||ret||tab|

What often gets missed in the fuss over cleanup costs, inconvenience and further penalties, said Ron Jeffries, a DNR official, is the paramount reason for clean air standards in the first place. They were established to prevent and reduce the costly human health damage from pollution, he said.[[In-content Ad]]