General Cycling Discussion - Ozone Alerts

Ok, its summer here in Dallas and
we're in the midst of Ozone Alerts.
I can deal with the temperature but
I'm not really thrilled with the idea
of riding when the air is classified
unhealthy. What do you do when
the air quality is bad?
I'm tired of the rollers, and to get a ride
in before work (when the air is supposedly better)
would mean being up and out before 4am.
Just curious.

Marty

Lotek, ozone doesn't really get bad until afternoon. Check the EPA AIRNOW website for updates on your city. Ozone levels are measured every hour in many cities.

Mornings are generally clear until after 12:00 pm. Afternoons aren't necessarily bad if you can pass through the "window" that may often occur before 5 or 6 pm. Also, if it rains you can count on a rapid drop in ozone levels.

My own theory is that avoiding heavy traffic on bad air days
by taking empty back roads will reduce your exposure significantly.

Originally posted by lotek
What do you do when
the air quality is bad?





You move north.

Ozone levels are highest on sunny days with atmospheric temperature inversions. You may be able to protect yourself somewhat by getting lots of antioxidants in your foods and supplements. Ozone levels tend to be highest a bit downwind of urban centers, partly because the emissions mixture needs time to cook in the sunlight, and partly because nitric oxide (NO) emissions from cars scrub ozone out of the air, through the reaction: NO + O3 ==> NO2 + O2.

Originally posted by John E
Ozone levels tend to be highest a bit downwind of urban centers...
This is one reason to appreciate a headwind.

Someone sent this to me last week, when you could cut the air with a knife. Our rides are near Joe Pool Lake and we have been having southerly winds so the quality there has been better than in the North part of the metroplex.

http://www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/monops/ozone_animation?04

Originally posted by KleinMp99
You move north.
Northern cities are not exempt from smog by any means. Their ozone seasons may be shorter, however.

I have been looking into this recently. All of the suggestions above are good ones. In addition I have read that vitamin E and vitamin C can be used to offset the effect of Ozone on the lungs.
Here is one such article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1552000/1552074.stm). I take one 400 I.U. geltab twice a day of vitamin E and 500mg of vitamin C along with a normal multivitamin with a meal as a hedge.

regards
Dan

Excellent article! Thanks, Dan.

were having them pretty much year round, i just ride.

were having them pretty much year round, i just ride.

You can use the TNRCC website too in Houston. Just change the zone.

Yep, we have smog alerts comming out so regularly now,
in 2001 there we about 10 time the number of days than in 2000,

Either they've lowerd the threshold, or things are getting worse on an exponential scale!!

i apologize to scooby snax and all of his feelow torontonians for the smog and crap that comes over from the usa on the tailend of that canadian wind.

anyway..... vitamin C is so water soluable that the stuff that you buy at the store is in and out of your body after 3 hours or so after taking it. vitamin C leaves through the usual urination but also through your respiration, especially when combined with ozone. smokers are terribly deficient in vitamin C and some say that is an underlying reason why smokers get lung infections (of course inhaling hot smoke containing CO doesn't help)

my course of antioxidants for the athlete:
TIME-RELEASE Vitamin C 1000mg twice a day.
Vitamin E 400 IU (some say 800 IU, and i agree, but it is fat soluable, which means it stays ijn your body longer than the water-soluable vitamin C does and you have to assume that you are getting some in your diet, no matter how crappy)
Selenium 100mcg once daily
Vitamin B Complex-100 once daily
Zinc 50 once daily.


keep in mind that the USDA guidelines are not only outdated (they haven't been updated since the 50's) they were also designed as a baseline measure for minimum requirements. although one would argue that today even twinkies are vitamin fortified.

i try to ride as early in the morning as possible. but allergies seem to be my short term downfall in the early spring and later in the fall.