Investigating air pollution

Introduction

The burning of fossil fuels such as petrol, diesel, fuel oils, gas and coal causes some types of pollution that affect the air quality. When these fuels burn they produce a range of pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and ozone.

Ozone is a bluish gas that is recognisable by its metallic smell. The ozone molecule is made up of three atoms of oxygen. Victorians used to think it was healthy to breathe in this gas and doctors would send their recovering patients to the seaside or to mountains where there were thought to be high levels of ozone.

Nowadays we know better. Ozone can damage health. It damages the same cells in our lungs that help to eliminate harmful bacteria. The irritant nature of the ozone also makes it harder for us to breathe.

Task

Answer the following questions about ozone pollution.

1.The graph below shows the levels of ozone in a city centre on one day of the year. Why do you think the concentration of ozone in the air changes over the day?
2. Do you think some days will be worse than others?
3. If so why?

4. Go to the UK National Air Quality Archive and choose a location from the table of monitoring sites. Without looking at the data, sketch a graph to show how you think the levels of ozone at that location might have changed during a particular day in one year.

5. Now click on a location from the table and go to the archive of pollution data for different years. Follow the instructions on the page to download a file of ozone data from the year you have chosen. Save the data into a spreadsheet program.

Plot a graph from the data. Does it match your sketch graph?