AP Online
09-30-2003
Dateline: WASHINGTON
Breathers note: the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday will begin issuing daily alerts year-round for smog and soot pollution in about 150 places prone to those problems.
EPA hopes its expanded "Air Quality Index," until now used solely for summertime smog, becomes as popular and widely used as the utterances of the National Weather Service.
The expanded forecasts for both smog and soot, or particle pollution, will help millions of people _ especially those with heart or lung disease, older adults and children _ protect their health, said EPA Acting Administrator Marianne Horinko.
They will be posted daily on an EPA Web site with color-coded forecasts for about 150 cities, counties and other monitoring locations, EPA officials said. The agency hopes to expand the service to twice the locations within two years.
"We're finally able after a whole lot of work to add air particle pollution," said Jeff Holmstead, EPA's assistant administrator in charge of air quality. "It will be year-round for both, but we don't expect there will be problems in winter with ozone."
That's because smog, or ozone pollution, forms in warm weather _ heat and sunlight are needed to cook the pollutants.
Currently, about 300 places get smog alerts, but those won't automatically be the ones that get the soot alerts.
"Fine particles and ozone pollution tend to be in the same areas, but that's not always the case, so some areas might not need to worry about ozone," Holmstead said.
The air quality index has grown, Holmstead said, from summer-only smog alerts for about 35 cities in 1998.
"We just haven't had the science to be able to do this until now," he said. "We're very excited."
Breakthroughs in providing better and quicker information have come through new computer modeling systems and improved air monitoring machines using updated filters, EPA officials said.
"Traditionally, you had to wait a day or two to get results," said John Bachmann, an EPA senior science adviser. "It's just taken time to develop the technology."
Bachmann said the new systems will provide through the Internet "close to real-time measurements" of smog and soot.
Smog forms at ground level through a chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in heat and sunlight. Some of the major sources are motor vehicle exhaust, industrial plants, gas vapors and chemical solvents.
Soot forms when microscopic solids and liquid droplets mix in air. Sources include diesel-powered vehicles and non-highway equipment, coal-burning power plants and forest fires. Particles can penetrate people's bodies, affecting lungs and the heart.
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On the Net:
EPA AirNow: http://www.epa.gov/airnow
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