Ozone is a summer time pollutant that causes lung irritation and difficulty in breathing.
It can cause even healthy people to have trouble breathing and can cause more serious problems for people who already suffer from respiratory difficulty. The summer of 1998 was a record for high ozone levels in the Denver metropolitan areas. Because of a longstanding outreach effort regarding winter air pollutants, such as carbon monoxide and particulate matter, the Denver-area public is well aware of winter air pollution. No similar outreach has been done to educate the public regarding summer ozone pollution, its causes, impacts and what can be done to decrease it. The APCD coordinated the advisory calls with the local media, put the advisories on their web page and set up a hotline for responses to citizen requests for information.