In the coming days, California are waiting for very hot days, but professional monitoring services air quality also warn about the high level of ground-level ozone, in other words, smog.
According to them, the heavy smog will be observed almost all over the state, but in the risk zone — Santa Clarita, San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and the Inland Empire, San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains.
It is expected that the state will be unusually high levels of air pollution during the whole next week or even until until the heat subsides.
Unlike ozone in the upper atmosphere, the so-called ground-level ozone is highly toxic, and its increased concentration in the air can cause headache, nausea, vomiting, respiratory tract irritation, coughing, asthma attacks and so on. «Contribution» elevated concentrations of ground-level ozone in the additional global mortality rate is estimated at 375 thousand deaths per year, primarily due to deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
California residents urged to constantly monitor the forecasts of air quality and to reduce physical activity outdoors in the middle of the day, when the level of smog is greatest.
Last year in California was the longest season of smog since 2009. Then for 132 days a year the experts recorded higher levels of air pollution.
