Our air quality is usually in the good or moderate range but it dipped into the unhealthy for sensitive groups level this week. Along with fires, cars will also contribute to our air quality this summer.
"Ozone is our summertime pollutant of concern," said Daniel Inouye from the Washoe County Health District.
Some of the bad air does come from California, but majority of it is homegrown.
"That's a combo of exhaust from cars and trucks mixing with volatile organic compounds. That's in the presence of sunlight and that forms ozone. Or what you can call smog," added Inouye.
Not a good thing for those with lung disease.
"We have a large number of asthmatic patients and some with COPD that we follow. When pollution levels are bad we'll be busier at those times," said Dr. Shapiro from Allergy and Asthma Associates.
Most days our air quality is alright. We're close to the standard from the Environmental Protection Agency. To make it better, the health district is starting their idle free campaign. Trees can help too.
"Absorbs the pollution from the air but then also it reduces the heat island effect that we see in urban areas," added Inouye.
The health district is always monitoring the conditions. The Reno site is pretty robust and runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The air gets pumped in from the outside, and then goes to each of the different monitoring stations. Some of the sites measure more than just ozone. The code you see each day is regional and takes the highest level out of all the sites.
You may have noticed the air quality was unhealthy Thursday morning, but that was just because of some construction going on nearby one of the monitoring sites, which can trip the sensors.
