Jody Olivier, a student at Ocean County College in Toms River, should have been studying for finals yesterday afternoon but instead sat outside, sipping a soft drink and soaking in the sun. This weather makes you lazy. I'm cooped up all day. But the air really wasn't so fresh. Ground-level ozone was expected to violate a national health standard again yesterday but was expected to be moderate today, said Andrew J. Mikula of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Ozone is a lung irritant at ground level and the chief ingredient in smog.
It can cause shortness of breath, chest pain, throat irritation, coughing and wheezing. But spokeswomen for six hospitals and emergency facilities in Monmouth and Ocean counties said yesterday that emergency rooms had not seen increased numbers of patients with breathing difficulties or heat-related problems. When it's really hot for an extended period of time and muggier, we get more respiratory cases. A sampling of several schools in Ocean and Monmouth counties found none planning early dismissals yesterday because of the heat. Students and faculty at Beach Haven Elementary School, which only has air conditioning in the Eighth Street building's computer lab, were coping very well yesterday, said Superintendent Eric Johansen.