Ozone is a well-known trigger for respiratory problems such as asthma, particularly in children. Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York City, set out to discover what effect ground-level ozone, which is predicted to increase as a result of global warming, will have on the number of kids visiting hospital emergency rooms in the next decade. NRDC experts weigh in on the findings below.

Acute ground-level ozone exposure is linked to childhood respiratory illness, exacerbations of asthma, and, more specifically, increased emergency department visits for asthma....

This study used a health-impact assessment framework to assess changes in ozone-related asthma emergency department visits in the population aged 0–17 years in the 2020s compared with the 1990s. ... [It] used publicly available New York State Department of Health asthma emergency department visit data.

The results of this assessment suggest that, compared to the 1990s, by the 2020s, climate change could cause a median increase of 7.3% in regional summer ozone-related asthma emergency department visits for children aged 0–17 years across the New York City metropolitan region....

As the first model of climate-related, regional, pediatric morbidity, this study not only demonstrates an important modeling approach but also provides some quantitative projections to which future work can add and compare.

Kim says: This study connects the dots between global climate change, locally rising temperatures, and increases in local ground-level ozone smog pollution. It's alarming that the health of more than 300,000 asthmatic children in 14 New York counties is being put at risk because of climate change.

Gina says: Ozone pollution is nasty stuff -- it's like hydrogen peroxide in the lungs. So it's no surprise that ozone pollution triggers life-threatening asthma attacks in vulnerable children. The surprise is how dangerous the combined effect of air pollution and climate changewill be in the very near future.

Pete says: Politicians don't always make policy based on the facts. What matters is what we do with this kind of information: establishing the data and showing how they are politically relevant to policy makers. Converting facts into political muscle is the key to influencing policy on air and climate issues.

John says: Congress has shown no inclination or receptivity to reducing ground-level ozone, but instead has introduced bill after bill to weaken the Clean Air Act and eliminate the 40-year-old legal requirement to define unhealthy levels of ozone pollution based on scientific and medical evidence, not on politics.