Gyeonggi-do Issues Ozone Advisory for 37 Days This Year... Highest in 5 Years

Number of Days with Ozone Advisory Issued in Gyeonggi Province

The number of days with ozone advisories issued in Gyeonggi Province this year reached 37, an increase of 13 days compared to last year.

The Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment announced on the 16th that, after operating the ozone alert system from March to October this year, a total of 37 ozone advisories were issued from the first advisory on March 22 to the last on September 10.

The number of advisory days this year matched that of 2019, which had the highest number of advisories in the past five years, and the average number of advisories from 2019 to 2023 was 31 days. The first ozone advisory issued on March 22 this year is the earliest date since the ozone alert system was introduced in 1997.

Ozone is closely related to weather conditions and occurs more frequently under conditions of high solar radiation and low wind speed. The Institute explained that ozone concentrations rose sharply in the unusually warm environment of March this year, leading to an earlier issuance of ozone advisories than usual.

Ozone is a type of photochemical oxidant, a secondary pollutant formed when nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons in the atmosphere undergo photochemical reactions under strong ultraviolet light. Ozone is highly irritating, and continuous exposure can cause symptoms such as chest pain, coughing, nausea, and indigestion. It can worsen conditions such as bronchitis, heart disease, and asthma, so caution is necessary.

In Gyeonggi Province, ozone concentrations are continuously monitored, and from April to October, when ozone levels tend to rise, a focused ozone advisory management period is set. The province is divided into four regions?southern, eastern, northern, and central zones?to operate the ozone alert system.

The ozone alert system issues an advisory when the hourly ozone concentration is 0.12 ppm or higher, a warning at 0.3 ppm or higher, and a severe warning at 0.5 ppm or higher. So far, no warnings or severe warnings have been issued in South Korea.

The Institute of Health and Environment provides an air pollution alert text message service for ozone and fine dust to protect residents' health. Anyone can apply for the free text alert service on the Gyeonggi Province Air Environment Information Service website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.