The west coast sees rising levels of ozone because of emissions from fast-developing Asian countries while the southeast sees increasing ozone from uncontrolled growth of the invasive species kudzu
Thirty percent of the ozone- one of the primary components of photochemical smog found in the skies above the western United States during the spring- comes from coal-fired factories in East Asia (primarily China and India). (1)
In about one week, winds carry ozone formed by emissions from cars, factories, and power plants in Asia to the US west coast, where it can add to locally generated pollution, worsening smog in cities such as Bakersfield, Fresno and Los Angeles. (2)
How does EPA respond to this? Fine folks and also further tighten federal ozone rules. They have proposed changing ozone limits from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to between 65 and 70 parts per billion later this year. A new standard would put more areas of the country in violation of air quality standards.
Some local California pollution regulators have begun arguing that they should not be penalized if Asian pollution is causing local smog to exceed health standards under the Clean Air Act. Spearheading this effort is the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District in California which regulates industry to protect nearly 4 million people from Stockton to Bakersfield who breath some of the nation's dirtiest air. The EPA imposed penalties on the region after it failed to meet a 2010 deadline to clean up ozone pollution. Valley air quality regulators have since collected more than $100 million in fines, mostly through an extra $12 a year in vehicle registration fees, reports Tony Barboza. (2)
However, it's not just populated regions that are having problems with ozone regulations. American Action Forum (AAF) research found that 100 national and state parks might not meet EPA standards of 65-70 ppb. Hardly transportation corridors and centers of heavy pollution, many observers would be surprised to know that Death Valley National Park, Sequoia National Park and Cap Cod National Seashore have ozone readings of 71 to 87 ppb. AAF says the real cost of EPA's ozone approach is $37.5 billion. To put this in perspective, it's roughly seven times higher than the cost of all major rules issued in fiscal year 2011. It's almost as high as the entire bill for all major rules issued from 1999 to 2009. (3)
Then there's kudzu, a fast-growing and invasive Asian vine introduced in the American south several decades ago. It has now blanketed more than 7 million acres of the region, making it sometimes seem more common than the hallmark azaleas, dogwoods and peach trees. Now there is evidence that the plant also increases air pollution by way of ozone contamination. (4)
Plugging their data into a computer scenario in which kudzu covered all non-agricultural non-urban soils in areas of Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee by 2050, researchers said the number of 'high-ozone events' would increase by as many as seven days per year, up more than 35 percent compared with another hypothetical scenario without kudzu. All this while kudzu is spreading rapidly—about 100,000 to 120,000 acres each year. (4)
What about health effects?
Health is the main justification for the nation's air quality management system, but reducing ozone would rank near the bottom of any rational list of priorities for improving Americans' health argues Joel Schwartz. (5)
Here are results form a number of studies:
In one report, average ground level ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) measurements were not correlated with 19,237 emissions for asthma at the University of California-Dave Medical Center during 2010-2012. (6)
A government-funded study of thousands of children in California reported that children who grew up in the highest ozone areas had a 30 percent lower risk of developing asthma, when compared with children on low-ozone areas. (5)
The claim that ozone can kill at real-world exposure levels is biologically implausible. Laboratory studies with hundreds of individual animals representing several different species show that animals do not die, even when exposed for the equivalent of many years to ozone at levels nearly ten times greater than the highest ambient levels. These results make it biologically implausible that ozone at real-world outdoor levels could be causing premature death in humans. (7)
Studies of low-level ozone exposure with human volunteers demonstrate that an 8-hour standard of 85 ppb is more than stringent enough to protect human health with an adequate margin of safety, even from the most mild health effect EPA claims for ozone. (7)
So there you have it. The west coast sees rising levels of ozone because of emissions from fast-developing Asian countries while the southeast sees increasing ozone from uncontrolled growth of the invasive species kudzu. Further, reducing ozone ranks near the bottom of any list for improving health. Yet, EPA in all its wisdom wants to drop ozone levels even further. All this provides another example of why Dr. Jay Lehr is on a campaign to get rid of the EPA. (8)
References
O. R Cooper et al., “Increasing springtime ozone mixing ratios in the free troposphere over western North America,” Nature, 463, 344, January 2, 2010
Tony Barboza, “Just how much is Asia's ozone to blame for bad air in the US?”, Carmel Valley, CA, January 31, 2015
Sam Batkins and Catrina Rorke, “100 national and state parks could fail to comply with EPA's new ozone regulations,” americanactionforum.org, December 8, 2014
Eryn Brown, “Kudzu linked to poor air quality in the south,” Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2010
Joel Schwartz, “Health risks of ozone are exaggerated,” Environment & Climate News, April 2006
Steve Milloy, “Ozone and PM2.5 not linked with asthma hospitalizations in major California hospital network,” calcontrk.org, September 3, 2013
Joel Schwartz, “Review and critique of the Environmental Protection Agency's analysis and conclusion regarding the effect of climate change on future ozone levels and ozone-related health effects,” junkscience.com, February 8, 2015
Jay Lehr, “Replacing the Environmental Protection Agency,” Heartland Institute, July 15, 2014
Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.
