(WWJ) – For the second day in a row, an Air Quality Alert was issued in Metro Detroit on Wednesday, making it another Ozone Action Day.
Ozone Action Days occur when the amount of ground level ozone reaches an unhealthy level – which happened each of the last two days as a heat wave hits the area.
On a new Daily J podcast WWJ’s Brian Fisher finds out what exactly constitutes an Ozone Action Day, what causes ozone to develop in our breathing air and whether we've actually been seeing more of them in Metro Detroit.
He learned from Jim Haywood, an air quality specialist with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), why warmer weather like we’re seeing creates such favorable conditions for ozone to be made and why they tend to "stack on top of each other."
While it may seem at times that we’re seeing more Ozone Action Days in recent years, Kelly Karll, the Manager of Environment & Infrastructure for SEMCOG, says the amount of ground-level ozone has “drastically decreased” in the last few decades.
“With the combined actions with our residents and the population, combined with all of our businesses and industries, over the last 30 years we’ve seen a dramatic decline in ground-level ozone,” she said.
And she says it’s only getting better as the EPA continues to make stricter standards for the threshold of “good air” and more people and businesses take action.
“That’s a good thing because it forces us to keep trying to improve things over time,” Haywood said.
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