The Union of Concerned Scientists answered the question in a recent report that says Utahns, like other Americans grappling with ozone pollution, can expect breathing problems to rise because of the pollution-climate link, as well as the health care costs of treating the added illnesses.
Up to 46,852 more cases of asthma and other respiratory illnesses can be expected by 2020, and costs could rise by as much as $107 million a year to treat those illnesses, the group said in its report, “Climate Change and Your Health: Rising Temperatures, Worsening Ozone Pollution."
Nationally, the science advocacy group found the added ozone pollution related to climate change could trigger as many as 2.8 million additional serious respiratory illnesses at a cost of about $5.4 billion. The climate-related pollution also could mean an additional 5,100 infants and seniors hospitalized with serious breathing problems and 944,000 additional missed school days in the United States in 2020.
“It's clearly a problem," said the group's Rachel Cleetus, “and it's likely to get worse."
Ozone pollution is different from the “ozone layer," which is about 10 to 20 miles above the earth and protects it from the sun's harmful rays.
Ground-level ozone is typically a summertime problem in Utah's urban areas, where chemicals and engines release pollutants that, when cooked in the sun and heat, become ozone pollution. And when ozone builds up on sunny afternoons, it causes what doctors describe as a kind of sunburn on the lungs, triggering asthma attacks, coughing and poor lung function. Read the full report here.
Source: by Judy Fahys, The Salt Lake Tribune.
