Discovery News, October 13, 2008

OZONE POLLUTION TO WORSEN UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE

[Rachel's introduction: In a report published this week by the Royal Society in the U.K., a team of researchers argue that even though nations like the United States, the U.K., and Japan have taken steps to curtail pollution that causes deadly ground-level ozone, global warming will negate their efforts by the year 2050.]

By Michael Reilly, Discovery News

Surface-level ozone, a poisonous gas that claims tens of thousands of lives annually, could get much worse thanks to the effects of climate change, according to new research.

While international treaties like the Kyoto Protocol attempt to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit the effects of global warming, researchers say ozone is a silent killer that has stayed below the radar.

"It's the third most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and methane," David Fowler of the National Environmental Research Council in the United Kingdom said. "But it's not the biggest one, and it's not the biggest threat to human health -- particulates in the atmosphere are worse. So it's a sort of Cinderella gas that has been mostly ignored."

In Europe alone an estimated 21,400 people die prematurely each year as a result of inhaling too much ozone, which damages lung tissue and exacerbates a variety of respiratory ailments.

In a report published this week by the Royal Society in the UK, Fowler and a team of researchers argue that even though nations like the United States, the U.K., and Japan have taken steps to curtail pollution that causes ozone, global warming will negate their efforts by the year 2050.

In developing countries, the outlook is far worse.

"If countries like China and India sign up to all of the emissions controls currently planned, things won't get much worse," Fowler said. "But they won't get much better, either. If the controls aren't vigorously applied, ozone could multiply by several factors easily."

Since 1900, background ozone concentrations worldwide have gone from about 10 parts per billion to between 30 and 50 parts per billion today. High in Earth's stratosphere, ozone is crucial to life on the surface, shielding us from harmful solar radiation. When humans and plants breathe it in, though, it's toxic.

Copyright 2008 Discovery Communications, LLC.