Ozone pollution damaging human health

London, October 6: Constant failure to fight ozone pollution is putting human health at higher risk, a report by the Royal Society says. Ozone pollution is attributed to killing more than 1,500 Britons a year, the study warned.

Furthermore, with ozone concentration in air growing by 6 per cent a decade since the 1980s, based on similar trend, the projected death estimates are likely to rise by 51 per cent to nearly 2,400 by 2020.

Although the ozone layer acts as a protective wrap around the planet at the higher level in the atmosphere absorbing the sun’s high frequency ultraviolet light, at ground level it a significant pollutant that is damaging human health.

An increase in ozone levels is also bad for crops, affecting yield and nutrition levels, the agency averred. An estimated £5.2 billion was lost due to the impact on arable crops in Europe in 2000. Significant reductions in crop yields caused due to the rising ozone levels have also been observed in North America and South Asia.

Experts at the Royal Society forecast the crop loss to increase significantly over the next 30 years, if ozone curtailing measures fail.

Ground ozone is formed when the sunlight comes in contact with air pollutants expelled by vehicles and industries. Emissions from forest fires and international shipping also add to the woes. The situation is exacerbated by hot, sunny, stagnant weather conditions, making ozone concentrations rise as the climate warms up.

Moreover, higher levels of ground ozone contribute to global warming. With ozone being the third most important greenhouse gas contributing to global warming, increased levels of ozone will exacerbate further climate change.

Though various regulations have been passed by British authorities, the efforts to combat the rising levels have failed, largely because pollutants are carried by air currents from other parts of the world.

"Ozone is a global traveler and one of the most pervasive of air pollutants. Weather systems and jet streams transport ozone, and the pollutants that lead to its formation, often far from their point of origin," David Fowler, chairman of the Royal Society's ground level ozone working group, said.

"Until we have a globally coordinated approach that addresses the international nature of the problem, national and even regional level controls are unlikely to deliver the kind of reductions that are necessary to protect human health and the environment," he said

Children, elderly and those with weakened immune systemdefine are most vulnerable to adverse reactions to ozone. Irritation in eyes, chest and breathing problems like bronchitis and asthma, heart attack and early deaths are often attributed to ozone pollution.