Destructive Ozone Depending on where ozone resides, it can protect or harm life on Earth.
It is a powerful photochemical oxidant that damages rubber, plastic, and all plant and animal life. It also reacts with hydrocarbons from automobile exhaust and evaporated gasoline to form secondary organic pollutants such as aldehydes and ketones. The peroxyacyl nitrates are especially damaging photochemical oxidants that are very irritating to the eyes and throat. Ozone pollution originating in urban areas can extend into surrounding rural and forested areas that are hundreds of kilometers downwind. Episodes of elevated ozone concentrations are associated with warm, slow moving high pressure systems and contain between 30 and 50 parts per billion by volume.