Researchers there suspect that weather conditions over the Gulf of Mexico may provide nearly ideal conditions for transforming common pollutants into ozone. Alabama's beaches may have ozone levels as high as those in Florida, but because there are no monitors near our beaches, no one knows for sure. Children and people with respiratory illnesses may suffer more severe damage, in part because their lungs are poorly equipped to fend off or repair the damage caused by ozone. But when ozone reaches the levels we've been experiencing this summer, even healthy, physically fit adults can suffer from the damaging effects of ozone, particularly if they spend a lot of time working hard outdoors. Lunchtime joggers, construction workers, fishermen and even frequent gardeners are all considered unusually vulnerable to ozone damage, according to EPA scientists.
Ozone sears the lining of the lungs, just as too much sun can burn the skin.
The lungs of healthy people can quickly repair the damage, but repeated exposures to ozone can make the damage impossible to repair. The effects of ozone, which are well documented in scientific literature, include increasing vulnerability to colds and viruses, increasing susceptibility to asthma attacks and, eventually, permanent loss of lung capacity. I thought all ozone was a bad thing. Ozone has a good side and a bad side, and it's easy to get confused if you're not paying close attention. The short of it is, the layer of ozone high on the edge of Earth's atmosphere is natural and beneficial and actually helps to protect life down below from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.