When Meah Freisinger sees an air quality alert at her home in Denver, the 16-year-old’s world can get smaller.
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The pollutants that plague the Front Range in the summer months can trigger her asthma symptoms.
“When there's a bad ozone day, I have to stay inside most of the time,” Meah said Monday at a Denver event aimed at bringing awareness to the Front Range's poor air quality. “I have worn N-95 masks, but those don't usually help with ozone levels. That will only help with smoke and stuff, and so it does impact my daily life.”
Meah, a student athlete, said bad ozone days have also resulted in trips to the intensive care unit.
Meah is one of many Coloradans who are especially impacted by the roughly four month summer ozone season that kicks off this week.
The air pollution is fueled by vehicle emissions, gas-powered lawn equipment and the oil and gas industry.
Denver and the northern Front Range average about 30 bad ozone pollution days a year.
The area, which includes Greeley, Aurora and the Denver metro, ranked as the eighth worst place in the nation for ozone pollution in the American Lung Association’s most recent State of the Air report.
“Every county in our metro area earned an ‘F’ for ozone pollution,” Nick Torres, the Lung Association’s advocacy director, said Monday. “These failing ozone grades mean we're failing our most vulnerable residents, people living with health conditions like asthma and COPD, the elderly, pregnant people. We're failing our children whose lungs are still developing.”
Air quality advocates gathered in downtown Denver on Monday to kick off the ozone season and call for more action and awareness around the issue.
Residents can sign up to receive air quality alerts. The state health department advises residents to avoid rigorous outdoor activities during the heat of the day when there’s an Ozone Action Alert.
Frequent exposure to ozone can cause long-lasting lung damage.
The Regional Air Quality Council has a long list of tips to help Front Range residents reduce their contributions to the ozone problem.
They range from switching to electric lawn equipment to reducing car trips.
