Ozone found at the Earth’s surface is an air pollutant harmful to human health. The regulatory ozone limit values designed to protect human health vary by country. The research conducted was a component of the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR), an international effort to improve scientific understanding of ozone’s global distribution and trends. The results provide the most ambitious ever ground-level ozone assessment, using data from over 4,800 monitoring stations across the globe.
Map of ozone air quality standards (ppb) set for the protection of human health. Source: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.273.f1
As part of the study, ozone levels potentially detrimental to human health were assessed where data was available, both in urban and non-urban areas worldwide. There is considerable variation within regions and hot-spot locations with the highest ozone levels have been identified.
This study uses a variety of ways of measuring the occurrence of high ozone levels to assess the frequency of periods a given population is exposed to harmful ozone levels and how this has changed over time.
Surface ozone levels potentially detrimental to human health are found in many regions around the globe, both in urban and non-urban areas. They found that different methods of determining high and peak ozone levels worldwide are generally similar.
While ozone has decreased in much of Europe and the North America over the past 15 years, the study shows it is increasing in parts of East Asia with increasing development and pollution emissions. A large publicly available database has been compiled which includes a complete set of statistics and graphics available for viewing and download.
Journal article / This article assesses premature respiratory mortality attributable to long-term O3 exposure for three regions of the world using ground-based monitoring data.
Journal article / The TOAR-Vegetation report provides recommendations to facilitate a more complete global assessment of future ozone impacts on vegetation.
Journal article / Application of appropriate metrics to assess how changes in ozone levels affect health and vegetation is vital for policymakers.
