Ozone-Health Alert Today

Tuesday, August 14th 2007, 1:59 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- State environmental officials on Tuesday issued a second consecutive ozone alert for Wednesday in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. As temperatures climbed into the triple digits across the state on Tuesday, the Department of Environmental Quality also issued a health advisory for more than a dozen counties in central, eastern and northeast Oklahoma indicating the air is unhealthy for people with asthma or other respiratory problems.

A more severe health advisory was issued Tuesday for Rogers, Wagoner and Tulsa counties in northeast Oklahoma, said DEQ spokeswoman Skylar McElhaney.

"Our monitors across the state have detected high levels of ozone, and they're very elevated in the three counties in the Tulsa area: Rogers, Wagoner and Tulsa counties," McElhaney said. "We certainly recommend that people in the affected areas take precautions."

Also known as smog, ozone forms on still, warm days when sunlight combines with pollutants like vehicle exhaust.

You can help reduce pollution by:

Limiting your driving

Avoid mowing with gasoline powered mowers.

Fill up your gas tank after dark if possible.

Carpool, the fewer cars driven the better.

Ride the Bus, it is 50 cents on Ozone Alert Days.

Ride your bike to work.

Telecommute if possible.

Temperatures reached triple digits across Oklahoma on Tuesday, including 104 degrees Tuesday afternoon in Bartlesville and Tulsa. It was 99 degrees in Oklahoma City.

For more information about Ozone Alerts, click here.

For more information about weather and your health, click here.