MassDEP Summertime Daily Air Quality Forecast Begins This Week
Season starts one month early due to new ozone standard for unhealthy air quality

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) begins its seasonal ozone forecasting this week, rather than May 1st as in past years. In 2008, an earlier start was deemed necessary due to the recent implementation of a more-stringent federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ozone standard.

The new national ozone standard means that unhealthy air alerts could become more frequent. The new standard is based on data from health studies showing that the prior standard was not protective of public health. In lowering the trigger for unhealthy air alerts from 85 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion, MassDEP expects this new standard could result in more frequent unhealthy ozone occurrences.   

"Our daily air quality forecasts inform and raise awareness about the air quality around us," MassDEP Commissioner Laurie Burt said. "While we've made great strides in cleaning our air, unhealthy air days remind us that there is work to do on reducing the sources of pollutants that cause ozone."

Ozone attacks the respiratory tract and damages cells in airways. Symptoms include coughing, rapid or painful breathing, and nose and throat irritation. Exposure to ozone can trigger asthma and allergy attacks and worsen chronic lung diseases. While initial symptoms normally disappear, repeated exposure to ozone may cause permanent lung damage.

MassDEP also provides year-round air quality forecasts of fine particle pollution. While fine particles - essentially soot and dust - can reach unhealthy concentrations any time of year, summer is when their concentrations tend to be highest, often on the same days when ozone concentrations are high.

Mounting evidence that fine particle pollution can cause health effects at lower concentrations than previously believed prompted the EPA in 2006 to tighten its daily fine particle standard from 65 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) to 35 ug/m3. MassDEP issues its air quality alerts at the new, lower fine particle threshold in order to protect public health.

Through daily air quality forecasts, MassDEP alerts the public to existing or impending unhealthful air quality conditions and offers suggestions for those times when air pollution nears or exceeds unhealthful levels.

MassDEP air quality forecasts for both ground-level ozone and fine particles are updated daily on the Massachusetts Air Quality Hotline (1-800-882-1497), and at MassDEP's web site: www.mass.gov/air.  People can also sign up to receive email forecasts, including alerts on poor air quality days at this address: http://www.epa.gov/region01/aqi/index.html

Every day, the Commonwealth continues to combat air pollution on multiple fronts:

* Massachusetts is promoting new initiatives to support clean energy and promote energy efficiency;

* MassDEP's power plant regulations require the state's coal-fired utilities to significantly reduce air emissions;

* MassDEP's Low Emission Vehicle program ensures that less-polluting cars and light trucks are sold here;

* Massachusetts continues to push for tighter controls in upwind states whose pollution is transported to the Northeast.

Most ground-level ozone is created when hydrocarbons - the main ingredients in gasoline and solvents - chemically react on hot, sunny days with nitrogen oxides, a group of pollutants produced when fuels are combusted.

Particulates can penetrate deeply into the respiratory system causing several health effects, some serious. Those most susceptible are the elderly and people with existing heart or lung disease; when exposed to high levels of particles, these individuals are at increased risk of significant health problems. Children are also at risk, because they may find it more difficult to breathe. 

Particulates can also increase susceptibility to respiratory infections and aggravate asthma and chronic bronchitis. Sources of particulate pollution include all types of combustion - motor vehicles, power plants and wood burning, for example - and some natural processes, such as wind erosion that creates dust. Fine particle readings are not as dependent on sunlight and warm weather, as is ozone, and are more likely to occur throughout the year.

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