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“If you live in St. Louis City, the air you breathe may put your health at risk. Ozone: F. If you live in St. Louis County, the air you breathe may put your health at risk. Ozone: F.”
These are the warnings and grades on the 2020 State of the Air report compiled by the American Lung Association. In 2019, the city and county also received “F” grades for high ozone levels. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also identified the county and city of St. Louis as not meeting ozone standards.
Since 2000, the American Lung Association has analyzed each year nationwide readings from air quality monitors to provide “an annual assessment of local air quality that could then be used in the future to assess progress, or lack thereof, in achieving health air quality.” Although ozone levels have decreased for the city and county of St. Louis, the 2020 report found ozone at still too high of levels, says Susannah Fuchs, director of clean air for the American Lung Association in Missouri.
Ozone, a gas composed of oxygen, is found in the Earth’s upper and lower atmospheres. In the upper atmosphere, ozone protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays, but some man-made chemicals have penetrated that protective layer. In the Earth’s lower atmosphere, near ground level, ozone is formed when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, chemical plants, and other sources react chemically in the presence of sunlight.
Reducing emissions from cars and trucks is among the ways to reduce ozone pollution, as motor vehicle exhaust is a source of nitric oxide, which is oxidized in the atmosphere for nitrogen dioxide. “Nobody is saying, ‘Don’t drive,’” Fuchs says. “But we can all do our parts.” That can include, Fuchs notes, something as simple as turning off the car while waiting in line at a school or elsewhere.
The COVID-19 pandemic might have helped in this area: Data suggest traffic across metro St. Louis decreased in recent months as more people worked from home because of COVID-19. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources found, in a preliminary analysis, lower air concentrations of nitrogen dioxide between March 23 and May 4, 2020, compared to that same period in 2019.
Missouri works with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on improving air quality, according to Darcy Bybee, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resource’s Air Pollution Control Program. The EPA sets levels for six common air pollutants: ozone, lead, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide. The standards, the agency says, are based on levels at which pollutants become health and environmental hazards.
Bybee says the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has about 50 air monitors across the state, including in St. Louis, to track concentrations of ozone and other air pollutants.
In 2020, St. Louis City received a “B” grade from the American Lung Association for 24-hour particle pollution, and a “pass” grade for annual particle pollution. The county earned an “A” for 24-hour particle pollution and a “pass” for annual particle pollution.
Particle pollution is a mix of tiny solid and liquid particles suspended in the air and composed of acids, organic chemicals, metals, soil, and dust particles. It can be emitted directly from wood stoves, forest fires, and vehicles, and can also form from sources like power plants.
In July, the American Lung Association, health, and medical groups issued a press release calling on the U.S. Environmental. Protection Agency to tighten air quality standards for ozone. “Ozone pollution is dangerous. It can cause respiratory harm, asthma attacks, COPD exacerbations, heart attacks, strokes, and premature death,” the release read. It continued that anyone “can suffer health harms from breathing ozone pollution, but millions of people face greater risk, including the more than 16.4 million adults with COPD and more than 24.8 million Americans with asthma, of which 5.5 million are children.”
Minority and low-income communities are particularly vulnerable, says Patricia Washington, vice president for communications for the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. “It’s an environmental justice issue.”
