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EPA initiates new review of the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new review of the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). EPA established the current standards at a level of 70 parts per billion in 2015 and retained them in 2020, after concluding that there was little new information to suggest the need for revision.

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Severe drought influences ozone pollution

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From 2011 to 2015, California experienced its worst drought on record, with a parching combination of high temperatures and low precipitation. Although ozone in the stratosphere protects the earth from ultraviolet radiation, at ground level the molecule is a harmful air pollutant to humans, animals and plants.

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Global study links daily exposure to ozone pollution to increased risk of death

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Daily exposure to ground level ozone in cities worldwide is associated with an increased risk of death, according to the largest study of its kind, published in an open-access paper in The BMJ. Ground level ozone is a highly reactive gas commonly found in urban and suburban environments, formed when pollutants react in sunlight.

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Study quantifies impact of oil and gas emissions on Denver’s ozone problem

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The first peer-reviewed study to directly quantify how emissions from oil and natural gas (O&NG) activities influence summertime tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) pollution in the Colorado Front Range confirms that chemical vapors from oil and gas activities are a significant contributor to the region’s chronic ozone problem.

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Satellite method provides insight into ozone-NOx-VOCs sensitivity for different locations

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Ozone pollution near Earth’s surface is one of the main ingredients of summertime smog. It is also not directly measurable from space due to the abundance of ozone higher in the atmosphere, which obscures measurements of surface ozone. —Jin et al.

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Study finds some refrigerants less damaging to ozone layer can degrade to long-lived GHG CF4

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Some of the substitutes for ozone-damaging chemicals that being phased out worldwide under international agreements are themselves potent greenhouse gases and contribute to warming. Burkholder (2015) “An atmospheric photochemical source of the persistent greenhouse gas CF4” Geophysical Research Letters doi: 10.1002/2015GL066193.

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EPA updates VOCs standards for oil and gas storage tanks

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The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued final updates to its 2012 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) performance standards for storage tanks used in crude oil and natural gas production and transmission. tanks that came online before 12 April 2013 are likely to have lower emissions and must control VOC emissions by 15 April 2015.

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