Does ozone help reduce pollution?

Question

Using Los Angeles smog as an example. It sounds like people don't understand how the ozone in smog is formed. My understanding is that when you have incomplete combustion in engines, you get not only carbon monoxide but also ozone. Instead of CO2, you get CO plus O. O is ozone, one atom of oxygen. In the air, when O meets CO they merge again to form CO2. So O neutralizes carbon monoxide. Is that the way you see it? Do you view ozone as a harmful pollutant?

I just checked and yes ozone is O3. But still I recall reading that it combines with monoxide. That would leave us with C Dioxide and pure oxygen.

Answer 1

Depends on where the ozone is. High in the atmosphere, ozone traps a lot of UV. Down on the ground, ozone is a nuisance: created by sunlight from partially burned hydrocarbons, it is considered a pollutant itself. It does nasty things to noses and eyes.

Answer 2

no, ozone is a highly unstable form of oxygen (O3) that is toxic to breathe, but when it is in the upper atmosphere is shields the earth's surface from many of the sun's UV rays. If ozone could be produced that way we wouldn't have had the hold in the ozone layer, we would've "patched" it that way.

Answer 3

Ozone at the surface of the Earth is a pollutant, thus is increases pollution. It doesn't matter how ozone is formed, unless you are trying to find ways to reduce its formation.

Answer 4

The ozone layer protects Earth from the Sun's UV rays. Without it, we'd all be Kentucky fried chicken by now.