Gil Hanson Daniel Knopf Dina W. Zakaria

1. Ground-Level Ozone Smog Gil Hanson Daniel Knopf Dina W. Zakaria

2. Purpose of Workshop • Recognize that Ground Level is a serious health problem on Long Island • Understand formation of ground-level ozone and reactions involved. • Understand its effects on plants and humans. • Identify bioindicators of ozone damage to plants • Introduce ground level ozone to science curricula • General Science • Earth Science • Living Environment • Environmental Science • Chemistry

3. Goal of Workshop • To give teachers in high needs schools the information they need to show the immediate relevance of earth science to underrepresented minority students.

4. Schedule Monday • Morning • Introductions • Lectures on Ground Level Ozone

5. Monday Afternoon • Discuss project topics • Individuals decide on their topic • May work in groups • Each group targets different topic • Individuals develop separate lesson plans • Lab Experiment • Begin to prepare lesson plans • Identify Bioindicators on Campus

6. Tuesday • Morning • Look for ozone damage in Avalon Preserve Meadow • Afternoon • Lab Experiment • Develop a lesson plan: • student handouts • teacher presentation and notes • student (lab or field) activity • student assessments

7. Wednesday • Morning • Visit Dr. Meg McGrath’s Bean Patch in Riverhead • Afternoon • Visit Dwarf Pine Plains to look for ozone damage on plants • Return to SBU to develop lesson plans

8. Thursday • Develop student handouts, teacher lesson plan, and test student (lab) activity

9. Friday • Give presentations on topics • Develop projects for laboratory at Stony Brook

10. Ozone, O3 , is • Colorless but highly irritating to life forms • Found in troposphere as well as in stratosphere • Highly reactive. • 10 ppm in atmosphere is lethal

11. http://whyfiles.org/030air_pollution/images/nasaozone.gif

13. Good ozone located in the stratosphere. It traps ultraviolet rays Protects human life Bad ozone produced in the troposphere Called surface ozone or ground level (O3) main component of smog pollutant Good Ozone v. Bad Ozone

14. http://harmanonearth.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/ground_ozone.jpghttp://harmanonearth.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/ground_ozone.jpg

15. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) • Very reactive. • Formed by the oxidation of nitrogen gas (N2). • Sources of nitrogen oxides include: • Urban traffic • Combustion processes (ex: vegetation fires) • Lightening storms (Australia and South Africa.)

16. Optimum Weather Conditions • During summers ozone is at highest levels • Increased sunlight • higher temperatures (> than 85o F). • stagnating high-pressure systems • During winter and wet and cool summers, ozone levels are greatly reduced.

17. Influence of Weather and Episodic Events on Ozone Formation • The production of surface ozone air pollution: • peaks in the later afternoon at low elevations • remain high all day at higher elevations, such as in the mountains. • increase seasonally from April through September • increased amounts of sunlight • higher temperatures • commonly occurring stagnating high-pressure systems

18. Ozone & Human Health Effects Ozone attacks lung tissue through oxidization reactions. Ozone acts as a powerful irritant, some compare this to getting a “sunburn” on the lungs. Animal toxicology studies have shown that long-term exposure to high levels of ozone can cause structural changes to the lungs.

19. Ground Level Ozone and Plants • Causes foliar injury in plants • Reduces growth • Reduces crop size

20. Break Out • Prof. Knopf

21. For Humans Ground Level Ozone Oxidizes Lung Tissuehttp://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=50328 • shortness of breath • chest pain when inhaling deeply • wheezing and coughing • increased susceptibility to respiratory infections • inflammation of the lungs and airways • increased risk of asthma attacks  • increased need for medical treatment and hospital admission for  people with lung diseases,

22. What is asthma? • Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways that causes recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and cough

23. How does ozone act in the lung • Injury and inflammatory response result in : • An increase in small airway obstruction • A decrease in the barrier function of the airway epithelium • An increase in airway reactivity • After a period of weeks following a single exposure, the airway appears to return to the pre-exposure state

24. Which populations are susceptible to ozone damage • One factor that explains variability is age, • young adults (teens to thirties) are more responsive than older adults (fifties to eighties) • data do not suggest that children are more responsive than young adults • Children may have more response if they are more exposed (spend more time outside) • People with asthma are the most responsive group

26. How quickly do ozone-induced respiratory symptoms resolve in individuals without asthma? • They should begin to improve immediately upon cessation or reduction of exposure and should have disappeared completely within 24 to 48 hours after the exposure ends

27. Effects of recurrent or long-term exposure to ozone • Some early evidence that long-term ozone exposure may result in new asthma • young children may be especially susceptible • Prudent to avoid repeated short-term exposures, particularly in young children, until more is known • Each increase of 10 ppb ozone leads to a 4% increase in deaths associated with respiratory disease • 250,000 people die each year from respiratory disease • How about Long Island?

28. How much is too much • More potential for effect with longer time active outdoors and with more strenuous activity • Human exposure studies indicate that: • levels above 120 ppb, heavy outdoor exertion for 1 to 3 hours can increase risk • levels between 80 and 120 ppb, moderate outdoor exertion for 4 to 8 hours can increase risk • Moderate exertion = climbing stairs, tennis or baseball, simple garden or construction work, and light jogging, cycling • Heavy exertion = playing basketball or soccer, chopping wood, heavy manual labor, and vigorous running, cycling

29. What is the Air Quality Index? • The Air Quality Index tells the public how clean or polluted the air is • The AQI uses a scale from 0 to 500 (0 to 500 ppb for ozone) • The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of pollution and the greater the health concern • AQI values below 100 are generally considered to be satisfactory • The AQI is divided into six categories that correspond to different levels of health concern.

30. EPA Air Quality Index for Ozone – index values are ppb

31. How can you reduce exposure to ozone? • What is moderate exertion for one person may be heavy exertion for another • Cutting back on the level and duration of exertion when ozone levels are high will help • The times of poorest air quality are typically in the afternoon and early evening for most locations

32. Why are we looking at plants? • Not so easy to look at peoples lungs • Leaves are replaced each year. • Easier to evaluate source of damage.

33. Ground Level Ozone • Causes foliar injury • Reduces growth • Chronic exposure 40 - 80 ppb • Acute exposure > 80 ppb

34. Air Monitoring Stations Eisenhower Park does not include ozone http://www.dec.ny.gov/airmon/index.php

35. October 2004 July 2005 Ozone Oct. 2004 Biomass burning July 2005 industry and transport http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/ozone_garden.html

36. 92 to 106 ppb85 to 91 ppb EPA Eight Hour Ozone average of fourth highest day in year for three years

37. HIGH OZONE DAYS2009 Report for Suffolk CountyAmerican Lung AssociationSuffolk had highest ozone in state • Ozone Grade: F • Orange Ozone (85 – 104 ppb): 16 days • Red Ozone (105 – 124 ppb): 0 days • Purple Ozone (125 – 374 ppb): 1 day

38. Background ozone levels • In 1900 = 10 to 20 ppb • Now = 35 ppb • If no reduction in global NOx productionby 2100 = 50 ppb or more • Global warming will lead to more hot, sunny days • Thus, more ground level ozone added to higher background levels

39. Air Monitoring Stations Eisenhower Park does not include ozone http://www.dec.ny.gov/airmon/index.php

41. Break Out

42. Ozone Air Pollution is Harmful to Plants • Plants take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. • When carbon dioxide enters stoma • Ozone also enters the stoma • Ozone damages cells

43. http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/botany/images/25-2large.gifhttp://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/botany/images/25-2large.gif

44. Open top field chambers to control ozone http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/docs.htm?docid=8453

45. http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/docs.htm?docid=8453

46. How To Identify Ozone Injury • Look for ozone injury during the mid to late summer. July to mid-September • Find an opening with full sunlight exposure. • Select areas with no obvious conditions that would cause mimicking symptoms of ozone injury. • Look for symptoms on mature leaves that are in full sunlight.

47. Symptoms of Ozone Injuryhttp://www.ars.usda.gov/main/docs.htm?docid=8453 • Stipples (small darkly pigmented areas ~2-4 mm diameter) • Bronzing and reddening • Chlorosis • Necrosis

48. If the answer is yes to the following, the damage is probably due to ozonehttp://www.gva.es/ceam/ICP-forests/ • Is there any stippling? • Is there any reddening and/or confluent, even discoloration? • Do the symptoms occur on the upper leaf surface only? • Are the symptom expressed between the veins only? • Are the symptoms evenly distributed? • Are the symptoms more developed on the older leaves

49. Bio-indicator Species • widely distributed regionally • are easily identified in the field • exhibit foliar symptoms in the field at ambient ozone concentrations that can be easily recognized as ozone injury by subject matter experts • ozone sensitivity has been confirmed at realistic ozone concentrations in exposure chambers

50. Some Long Island Bio-indicators • Sweet-Gum • Tulip Tree (yellow-poplar) • Black Locust • Winged Sumac • Tall Milkweed • Common milkweed • Black Cherry • Northern Fox Grape • Cone Flower