Since May first, the only legal outdoor burning in the affected areas has been for cooking and grilling. This was the third year EPD included Hall in its mandatory "no burn" area.
EPD considers outdoor burning a big polluter and imposes the ban during the summer when the ozone problem is worse. The smog season ending Wednesday was one of the cleanest on record, with metro Atlanta recording only one day with severely unhealthy air.
An unseasonably cool, wet summer helped the region come close to complying with federal standards for ground-level ozone, or smog.
The only comparable summer in the past 25 years was 1994.
But just as metro Atlanta finally appears poised to pass one clean air test, others are on the way.
Starting Wednesday, scientists in 36 cities across the nation, including Atlanta, will begin daily forecasts for particle smog or tiny fragments of soot that are too small to see but can contribute to respiratory and heart problems.
Unlike ground-level ozone -- the air pollutant metro Atlantans have been warned to watch every May to September -- particle smog is an all-season hazard.
Michael Chang, an atmospheric scientist at Georgia Tech, is one of ten smog forecasters in Georgia. He says because the particles are so small, they stay suspended in the environment for a long time and when you breathe them in, they can work through your body's natural defense systems.
Experts say at least half a dozen areas are likely to fail the new test, including metro Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, Columbus, Macon and Rome.
The state will have three years to come up with a plan for reducing particle smog; it will have until at least 2009 to meet E-P-A's
particle smog standards.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/9/171683