According to a report released by the World Meteorological Organization in 2018, ground-level ozone concentrations in Europe and North America began to stabilize in the 2000s after remaining consistently elevated throughout the 20th century. In contrast, ozone levels in Asia continue to rise, according to data from the monitoring sites in the region.

How can ozone, a protector of the evolution of life on earth, become pollution? Can we perceive ozone pollution? What harm does ozone pollution do to the environment and the human body? Martin Schultz, former chairman of the World Meteorological Organization's Scientific Advisory Panel on Reactive Gases, said, "The ozone layer in the stratosphere protects humans from harmful radiation from the sun's ultraviolet rays, but in the lower troposphere, where the vast majority of secondary pollutants are produced by anthropogenic emissions when the 8-hour average near-surface ozone concentration exceeds 160 micrograms per cubic meter, ozone pollution is introduced. The presence of ozone, however, is detrimental to the human respiratory and cardiovascular systems and contributes to hundreds of premature deaths each year. Scientific assessment of ozone concentrations within the troposphere is important for developing public health policies and addressing long-term air pollution."

Since ozone is light blue, it is similar to the color of the sky. When it is lightly polluted, people can hardly notice it, even if they feel uncomfortable, and can only monitor its concentration with special instruments. In sunny and hot weather, ozone pollution reaches a specific heavy value, you will see the light blue smoke, and sometimes you can smell a "fishy smell" this light blue mist is called photochemical smog. Pollution irritation is extreme, damaging people's and animals' health, not only irritating the eyes and up to the deep respiratory system, and irritating the airway mucosa. In addition, ozone pollution can harm plant growth and promote acid rain generation.

In fact, since the end of the last century, North American and European countries have been implementing and advocating for the regulation and remediation of ozone pollution in countries around the world, so why is it still not falling but rising?

On the one hand: because the formation of ozone pollution of important precursors VOCs from a wide range of sources, in addition to forests, grasslands, oceans, and other natural sources of plant emissions, coal chemical, petrochemical, fuel paint manufacturing, solvent manufacturing, and use, steel making, coking and other industrial process emissions, motor vehicles, ships, aircraft, and other exhaust emissions is its generation of man-made sources; and VOCs of a wide range of types, the existence of a wide range of control difficulties. The common characteristic of VOCs is their volatility, which is easily decomposed by chemical reactions under strong ultraviolet radiation, and generates new combinations with oxygen in the air, thus generating large amounts of ozone. Therefore, under certain conditions, especially in polluted areas, the higher the concentration of VOCs, the higher the concentration of relative O3.

On the other hand: because O3 precursor emissions and its concentration in the atmosphere is not a simple increasing or decreasing relationship, and its formation process is also affected by climate temperature, light intensity, photolysis rate, and many other factors together, very complex, so ozone pollution prevention and control can not be like the treatment of the particulate matter, "a little work, a little harvest," as long as the source of good continuous control, there will be significant improvements.

How to effectively control O3?

FPI has the comprehensive service capability of "product + solution" to effectively solve complex, segmented, and emergent environmental problems. At present, FPI's monitoring instruments and solutions have been successfully applied in many places to deal with O3 control, such as the National Atmospheric Particulate Matter Component-Photochemical Monitoring Network Project, the Comprehensive Atmospheric Pollution Source Analysis Project in Hainan Province, the VOC Component Monitoring Network Project in Guangdong Province, etc. Many construction footprints of effective ozone pollution prevention and control have been left from the National Environmental Monitoring General Station to all parts of the province, from south to north.

O₃ Measurement: High precision ozone analyzer

The main component of photochemical smog pollution is ozone. To understand ozone concentration and change trends, we need to rely on high-precision and fast-response online monitoring equipment for real-time data feedback. After continuous technical breakthroughs, R&D tests, and industrial applications, FPI has launched a variety of highly precise analyzers to cope with ozone pollution.

AQMS-300 Ozone analyzer measures ambient O3 concentration in ppb level by utilizing UV photometric absorption technology.

AQMS-350 is used to detect and evaluate the O3 concentration level of one of the environmental air quality parameters (SO2, NO2, CO, O3, PM2.5, and PM10) based on chemiluminescence technology. This analyzer can measure the concentration of O3 in ppb~ppm level, with strong anti-interference capability, high repeatability, and accuracy.

For more detials about ozone analyzers, please feel free to visit FPI’s official online store: online.fpi-inc.com/