Tulsa has already had as many Ozone Alert days this year as last year, and a summer that’s expected to be hot and dry means there could be many more.
"It’s looking like we’re going to have a summer where there will be the need to do what we can do on certain days. You know, postpone your mowing until a non-ozone alert day," said INCOG Air Quality Program Manager Nancy Graham.
The Tulsa area has had three alert days in May. There have been four or fewer alert days every year since 25 of them in 2011 and 21 in 2012.
Every Ozone Alert day is a voluntary call to action for everyone living in the area to do things like hold off on mowing the lawn, carpool and fill up the car after dark.
"Just for that next day not put those emissions in the air that would otherwise be in the air and potentially make it really difficult for children that have asthma, make it really difficult for older people with breathing issues and COPD," Graham said.
Ozone exposure can cause shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing and coughing. Cities with ozone pollution may not be just unhealthy places to live, either.
"In a basic sense, they’re more expensive places to live. So, the cost of living, the economy there is higher and more difficult so we want to avoid that non-attainment, or the dirty air list," Graham said.
The current EPA standard for ozone is 70 parts per billion. While six individual readings this year have exceeded that, non-attainment is based on a three-year average of stations’ fourth-highest readings.
