Ozone alert analysis

An ozone alert is my favorite paradox. When global warming was in its infancy the demise of the ozone layer in the outer atmosphere was the suspected culprit. This was ratcheted into hysteria with the discovery of the hole over Antarctica.  Fluorocarbon chemical usage in air-conditioning and general industrial use was proposed as the villain. Such substances were banned increasing the cost and maintenance of residential air-conditioning.

The automobile was deemed to be the biggest villain. Surprise, the automobile emissions produced ozone when exposed to sunlight. Then horror of horror, people and cattle emissions (belches, flatulence, and decaying fecal matter) otherwise known as volatile organic compounds also produce ozone when exposed to sunlight. Sunlight will produce ozone from mature tall grasses and trees. Studies have shown high humidity is a correlating factor to ozone production volumes.

Ozone is a health hazard to some people. Ozone is a two oxygen atom molecule. When breathed, the lung ignores ozone because it is seeking single oxygen atoms. Ozone will lodge unabsorbed in the lung. This occurs when the lung grabs one of the ozone pair believing it to be a free atom not a molecule; a definite a health problem for respiratory problems.

Environmentalist desire less ground level ozone while paradoxically desiring more in the outer layer. Pollution control has to be counterproductive to one of these goals.

Human activity (paint fumes, laser printerd, and machinery lubricant) plays such a small part in ozone production it is practically meaningless. In the 1780's and early 1790's when Louisville was a fledgling city buffalo herds from central Indiana would migrate to the "great swamp" we now call south Louisville. Reference to an odd odor from these herds is probably ozone. Had monitoring equipment been available, the number of 18^th Century alerts would have exceeded the present.