Who is Most at Risk from Exposure to Ground-Level Ozone?
• Children are most at risk from exposure to ozone: • The average adult breathes 13,000 liters of air per day. Children breathe even more air per pound of body weight than adults. • Because children’s respiratory systems are still developing, they are more susceptible than adults to environmental threats. • Ground-level ozone is a summertime problem. Children are outside playing and exercising during the summer months at summer camps, playgrounds, neighborhood parks and in backyards. • Asthmatics and Asthmatic Children: • Asthma is a growing threat to children and adults. Children make up 25 percent of the population and comprise 40 percent of the asthma cases. • Fourteen Americans die every day from asthma, a rate three times greater than just 20 years ago. African-Americans die at a rate six times that of Caucasians. • For asthmatics having an attack, the pathways of the lungs become so narrow that breathing becomes akin to sucking a thick milk shake through a straw. • Ozone can aggr
