DEC issues ozone health advisory for Suffolk County as heat rises
Ozone levels climbed over Suffolk as temperatures neared 91 in Riverhead. State officials warned children, seniors and outdoor workers to cut back activity from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Suffolk County spent the hottest part of the day under a state ozone health advisory as the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Health warned that pollution levels could push above the Air Quality Index threshold of 100. The alert covered Long Island, including Nassau and Suffolk counties, and ran from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. as temperatures were expected to reach about 91 degrees in Riverhead.
The advisory mattered most for the people most likely to feel ozone first: children and teenagers at summer sports practices, older adults, people with asthma or other lung disease, and anyone working or exercising outdoors in the heat. Health officials said unhealthy ozone can trigger coughing, breathing difficulty and lung damage, a warning that carries extra weight for families trying to keep kids active and for workers spending hours outside on roads, in yards and on job sites across Suffolk.
Ozone is not emitted directly. It forms in sunlight, usually on hot summer days, when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds react in the air. Those pollutants come from automobile exhaust, industrial emissions, gasoline equipment, solvents and paints. DEC says the ozone forecast season runs from April through September, when clear skies and heat make these conditions more likely.
Officials urged people to limit strenuous outdoor activity, spend more time indoors or in air conditioning and move exercise to the morning, when ozone is usually lower. That advice was aimed squarely at a day like this one, when the combination of heat and sun can turn routine outdoor time into a health risk for people with sensitive lungs.
DEC operates air monitoring at more than 50 sites statewide, and its June 20 ozone-exceedance report showed why the warning was not just theoretical. Suffolk County monitors in Babylon, Holtsville, Riverhead and Flax Pond were among the sites tracking ozone readings close to or above the federal 2015 standard of 0.070 parts per million on some days. The agency also pushes alerts through DEC Delivers, broadcast media and AirNow, as summer smog season continues to build across Long Island.
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