"Smog" is an invented word combining "smoke" and "fog." As industrialization occured, people began to notice that
on very still days, the air would be noticeably harder to breathe. On very bad days, death rates would markedly increase.
Today, for most urban and suburban dwellers, some level of smog is a fact of life. The health effects of smog,
causing poor health and premature death and costing billions per year in medical care and lost wages, are the harsh results
of our use of polluting technologies.
Smog is a combination of invisible ozone and particulate pollutants. Though two different things, most sources
of pollution that produce one produce the other as well.
Ozone is formed when nitrous oxide pollutants react with sunlight. This occurs more in the summer, when sunlight
is strongest, and is exacerbated by the occurence at that time of year of atmospheric temperature inversion. This keeps
the air near the ground from circulating to higher altitudes, allowing the ozone to build up at ground level where people
live.
Ozone affects the whole respiratory system, especially the lungs. It especially affects children, the elderly,
and those with prior heart and respiratory problems. It can cause long lasting effects on children as it affects them
while their lungs are still maturing.
The EPA lists lawn mowers as an "importants source" of ozone-causing pollutants.
Particulate pollution can be caused directly in the form of soot from combustion or indirectly, from nitrous oxides and
sulfur oxides. It is the visible component of smog, obscuring visibility on bad days. It also affects the respiratory
system as the particles are carried deep into the tiniest passages in the lungs.
