Ozone: The Good and Bad of Ozone
Friday May 22, 2009
From a human perspective, ozone is both helpful and harmful, both good and bad. In the upper atmosphere, ozone protects all life on Earth from damaging radiation. At ground level, ozone is toxic and corrosive, a threat to human health, plants and marine life. In fact, another name for ground-level ozone is smog, which affects the health of many people worldwide.
Heat tends to make air quality worse and makes breathing more difficult. So with summer just around the corner and temperatures starting to rise, both the good and bad qualities of ozone will be more apparent. Learn more about the good and bad of ozone.
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Another aspect of ozone is that it is a powerful oxidant that is very effective in purifying water. The use of ozone in water treatment allows the reduction of chlorine and some harmful disinfection byproducts. Ozone use for water treatment has been common in Europe for decades and is now becoming more common in the US.