On the mornings of June 26-28 residents of the Triangle woke to hear that they were facing a Code Red ozone action day. Newspapers, radio, and television stations throughout the area trumpeted the warning.
Ground-level ozone is an air pollutant that is a by-product of emissions from some power plants, automobiles, and other sources. At higher concentrations ozone may cause respiratory problems for certain groups. A color-coded system has been adopted by North Carolina. When concentrations reach Code Red the air is considered to be “unhealthy.” The three levels that trigger health alerts are, in order of severity, Code Orange, Code Red, and Code Purple. Code Red days, in reality, occur infrequently and even when they occur, as was the case on June 26, the impact is local, showing up on one or two ozone monitors in an entire region. Code Purple days are almost never experienced.
Problems arise when ozone conditions are reported to the public. What was not noted in all the hype surrounding these three “Code Red alert days” is that it was largely a false alarm. For two of the days, June 27 and June 28, none of the nine ozone monitors in the officially designated Triangle region (Wake, Durham, Orange, Franklin, Johnston, and Granville counties) registered a Code Red at all. And on June 26 only two of the monitors made it into the Code Red range. One was in North Raleigh (none of the other three monitors in Wake County registered Code Red, including the monitor in downtown Raleigh) and one in Granville County.
This suggests that even on June 26, Code Red ozone conditions did not affect the vast majority of residents living in the region. This is not unusual. Last year the Code Red scare hit the Triangle June 10 and June 11. On each of these days only one in nine monitors registered Code Red, and on June 11 the only monitor that showed Code Red was in Franklin County, away from major population centers.
The system of ozone reporting is supposed to alert people to air quality problems in a concise, easy-to-understand manner. But the “information” that is provided is often misleading and can unduly panic the population. Concentrations of ground-level ozone tend to be localized. Conditions on opposite ends of Raleigh, Wake County, or the Triangle can be different.
In spite of this, if only one monitor in a region records a Code Red on a given day, the entire area is said to be under Code Red conditions. No one would say that the Triangle experienced a rainy day if only 11 percent of the region saw rain on a given day. Yet, this is the equivalent of what is done when ozone problems are reported. In reality, even when a Code Red alert turns into an actual Code Red day, the vast majority of people living in the alerted region are not experiencing Code Red conditions.
An even more disturbing aspect of the reporting system is that full information often is not provided to the public. Ozone alerts are issued to the media and therefore to the public the evening before a Code Red day is anticipated. But if conditions improve, the change in expectations is not forwarded to the media. So, if a Code Red alert is issued, it immediately gets publicized and continues to be reported throughout the day. But if conditions change by 10 a.m., for example, the media is not informed and what is actually a false alert continues to be reported.
The goal of protecting the public from environmental health risks is laudable. In a free society, it is the job of regulators and public health officials to provide information that is as accurate as possible and then to stand back and allow the citizens to make informed decisions about how they conduct their lives. It is not the job of public officials to hyperbolize problems in order to encourage people to act in accordance with what those officials believe is their own good. Unfortunately, this is what appears to be happening, not only with the reporting of ozone problems but a host of other environmental concerns.