Zone In on the Ozone

Now ozone is in the news again, not because there is too little of it in places (thanks to nasty CFC's that have depleted the ozone, especially over Antarctica), but because there is too much of it in the wrong place.

Apparently, concerns of ozone have been around for a while. The EPA has information on the molecule and its effects. But the gist of the matter is this. The molecule O3 (three oxygen atoms) are formed when oxygen and nitrates (NOx) interact. Specifically, NO2 (produced from car engines) is somewhat unstable, and when struck with light breaks apart into NO and O, and that spare O is highly reactive. (An oxygen atom on its own is fairly reactive, and it likes to bond with many other things, like hydrogen to produce water, or other oxygen atoms to produce the typical O2 molecule, or carbon, or nitrogen, or a host of other elements.) This lone, drifting oxygen can then latch onto the more stable O2 molecule, forming O3.

Now, chemists and chemical engineers have known for a long time that SOx and NOx were dangerous molecules responsible for lung aggravations and acid rain and various other detrimental features. These things have a very measurable, very immediate effect on the environment and on people, and they've been addressed for quite some time. However, given the concerns of ozone, especially in areas of heavy industry, or huge amounts of chemical traffic (such as the oil-field heavy regions around Pinedale), it seems to me that the real environmental concerns posed by NOx and SOx have been systematically ignored in favor of the harmless CO2.

But then, SOx and NOx aren't quite so politically expedient to lambaste in the news, so I guess they get a pass.