Compared to Tampa, Gainesville can breathe easier - but not by much.
The average ozone level of Alachua County for October is 46.1 parts per billion, and the level in Hillsborough County is 50.8 parts per billion, according to the FDEP's website.
Twenty-one U.S. counties and cities, including Tampa, exceed the amount of lead the Environmental Protection Agency allows to be in the air, according to a USA Today article published Wednesday.
The EPA standard is .15 micrograms per cubic meter of lead in the air over a three-month period, said Jennifer Diaz, press secretary for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Chang-Yu Wu, environmental engineering professor at UF, said local ozone levels in Gainesville are under control but close to the maximum acceptable standard.
He said it is important to contain ozone levels because ozone attacks lung cells and irritates eyes and skin.
Ozone forms because nitrogen oxide reacts with sunlight, he said.
Diaz said the new national standard, put in place in 2008, is 10 times higher than the previous standard.
Ozone is the only pollutant the FDEP tests for in Alachua County, Wu said.
Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, is the only place in Florida where lead levels are monitored, with four test locations, Diaz said. Lead pollution in the rest of Florida has decreased to very low levels.
"Since lead was phased out of gasoline, it is not worthwhile to monitor lead in air," Wu said.
If a county exceeds the maximum level of ozone, he said, the county must submit a plan to the EPA with a solution to the ozone problem.
After two to three years, if the plan is not effective, the county will start to have its federal transportation and highway funding phased out.
Increased ozone levels kill crops and farm animals, and people affected by increased ozone levels may see increased health insurance rates and have to take off time from work, Wu said.
"Loss of labor and increased health insurance, these are the hidden costs of high air pollutant levels," he said.
