Mecklenburg County failed its air quality report card. What does that mean?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The American Lung Association gave Charlotte an F for high ozone days.
- Mecklenburg County had 10 code orange ozone days and a red day.
- David Peden said ozone can irritate airways, trigger asthma and prime allergic reactions.
Charlotte recently received an “F” score for the city’s number of high ozone days and a “C” for harmful particles in the air from the American Lung Association.
The report, released on Earth Day, is the 27th of its kind from the group. Mecklenburg County was the only North Carolina county to get an “F”.
Charlotte isn’t among the most polluted U.S. cities, but a representative of the American Lung Association told The Charlotte Observer the grades should serve as a call to action.
The Observer spoke with an immunologist and allergist to learn more about what’s making the air unsafe and how people can protect themselves.
Does ozone help or hurt?
The ozone layer in the atmosphere helps keep humans safe from UV light, but ozone closer to the earth is a different story.
Ground-level ozone is created by chemical reactions between pollutants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The reactions occur more frequently with heat and sunlight, so higher ozone levels are observed in warm months. Ground-level ozone is associated with some health problems.
Mecklenburg County had 10 code orange ozone days and a red day, the Observer previously reported. No other counties had a red day.
Code orange means the ozone is high enough that it may pose a threat to sensitive groups — the elderly, children, active people and those with health conditions like heart and lung diseases. Red days are unhealthy for everyone, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
Sensitive populations are recommended to limit prolonged outdoor exposure during code orange days.
David Peden, a pediatric immunologist and allergist focused on environmental exposures and the director of the UNC Clinical Research Alliance, said that ozone exposure does two main things. Exposure can cause irritation of the airways that may trigger asthma, and it may also prime people to have more allergic reactions after exposure to lower thresholds of allergens.
Ozone can also cause an irritant effect that makes people unable to take a deep breath. Peden said this is a modified pain response.
“It’s not that people are in overt pain, but people who are very sensitive to this or have a significant ozone exposure, they may actually find it difficult to take a really big, deep breath,” Peden said.
Peden said that on a large scale, asthma is linked to ozone exposure.
Can we do anything about that?
Peden said that ozone does not penetrate indoor spaces very successfully. Depending on the code, populations may be recommended to stay inside or avoid long exposures.
If you are a part of a population that should avoid intense ozone exposure, Peden recommended:
- Going to the gym instead of exercising outside
- Using an inhaler if needed for asthma
- Having a plan for yourself or your child in the event of an asthma event
- Going out in the morning if need be, as ozone will likely be lower
“The time of the day in which ozone is likely to be more problematic is going to be late afternoon, early evening, because it takes that long to kind of cook fresh your ozone, as it were,” Peden said.
Peden said lowering energy use would bring ozone levels down.
”At the end of the day, it really comes down to energy use,” Peden said. “How much do people drive? Can they carpool? Can they go to either more efficient gasoline engines or electric engines?”
Renewable energy efforts would also mitigate the pollutants that cause ozone, Peden said.
Air quality across North Carolina
Not all of North Carolina received poor air quality reports. Out of about 225 metropolitan areas:
- Raleigh-Durham-Cary metro area ranks 143rd-worst nationally for ozone pollution with a “B” grade and 106th-worst in the nation for short-term particle pollution with a “C” grade.
- Fayetteville-Lumberton-Pinehurst metro area ranks 169th-worst in the nation for ozone pollution with a “B” grade and 154th-worst nationally for short-term particle pollution with a “B” grade.
- Asheville-Waynesville-Brevard metro area ranks 110th-worst in the nation for ozone pollution with a “C” grade. The metro area is ranked among the nation’s cleanest cities for short-term particle pollution and received an “A” grade and is tied for 21st-best among the nation’s cleanest cities.
- Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point metro area ranks 100th-worst nationally for ozone pollution with a “C” grade and 76th-worst nationally for short-term particle pollution with a “D” grade.
