Ozone levels send bay area residents looking for shelter

Weather conditions keep the stifling smog parked over the bay area. Asthma sufferers and others are forced to avoid it.

By WES ALLISON and BILL VARIAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 30, 2001

When the smog alert goes up, Vivian Jackson goes indoors.

Jackson, 58, of Clearwater suffers from asthma, and the heavy smog of the past few days has squeezed her chest and stolen her breath. Even talking can make her feel out of breath.

"I can't go outside. I was out yesterday to pick up my mail for like five minutes, and I could barely make it," Jackson said at her doctor's office Wednesday. "When I got back, within that five minutes, I was panting, and actually my chest was hurting."

Public health officials on Wednesday continued the Tampa Bay area's ozone alert in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Sarasota counties, and forecasters say it may be next week before the region gets real relief.

The culprit is a high-pressure system anchored over Central Florida that's preventing the usual pollution-clearing breezes. The ozone won't leave until that system dissipates and the breezes -- and the afternoon rains they bring -- return.

"The pollutants from all the sources in the Tampa Bay region build up, they don't get dispersed, and they cook right on top of us," said Pete Hessling, air quality division administrator for the Pinellas County Department of Environmental Management. "That's the optimal condition for high ozone."

Ozone levels actually fell slightly Wednesday to just below concentrations scientists consider a significant hazard for people with respiratory problems. Still, health officials kept the alert in the interest of public safety.

"Some people are going to be affected by it. It's on the threshold," said Tom Tamanini, chief of ambient air monitoring for the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission.

High ozone levels, which are blamed for the thick haze over Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, are especially dangerous for the very young, the elderly and anyone with lung problems, including asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Some doctors who treat allergy and asthma say they have received more than the usual number of calls from patients and their parents.

"I was so busy yesterday with people calling trying to get in today or tomorrow," said Dr. Raquelle Alexander, a St. Petersburg allergist and Jackson's doctor. "We've probably seen at least a half-dozen work-ins since we've had the haze this week."

One patient, a 64-year-old woman who works at Publix, asked her to write a note for her supervisor stating she shouldn't go outside to corral carts. "In the last several days, three or four times she's had to use her rescue inhaler," Alexander said.

For residents of Menorah Manor, a nursing home and rehabilitation center in St. Petersburg, Wednesday's ozone alert meant a scheduled outdoor barbecue was moved indoors. "Between this and the heat, who wants to be outside?" said Judy Ludin, a spokesman for the manor. "It's oppressive."

Ozone essentially is nitrous oxide from car tailpipes, smokestacks and the like mixed with organic compounds, such as those from trees, then baked in the sun. It is a particularly troublesome pollutant because of its tiny size: A human hair is about 100 microns wide. An ozone particle is 0.1 micron, or 1,000 times smaller.

These particles are too small for the nose hairs, mucus and other elements of the body's filtering system to keep out of the lungs. "They go right on down," Alexander said.

Treating asthmatic patients who suffer shortness of breath or other problems from high ozone requires giving them more medication, and even once the smog lifts they may need that extra dosage for a month, she said.

The National Weather Service said smog-friendly conditions should remain through the weekend, and perhaps into next week. That high-pressure system is expected to move slightly north over the weekend, then sag back south.

Parts of the region should get some rain, which could wash some of the ozone out of the air. But wimpy winds threaten to plague the bay area for a few days yet.

"We really don't see anything over five or 10 knots of wind until Monday," said Tom Dougherty, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Ruskin.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright