Summer is the season of sunshine — and the season of smog. It’s when weather reports roll from pollen counts to air quality warnings, portending bad days ahead for those who already struggle to breathe.

Bad air quality makes bad situations worse for people with breathing problems, from asthma flair ups to COPD complications. So what does bad air quality mean to your health, and what should you do about it?

It’s In the Air

The air we breathe every day is full of things that can irritate even healthy lungs, including pollen, pollution, ozone and airborne particulates. But for sensitive lungs, these can prove more than just irritating, making it difficult to breathe and sapping one’s energy.

Ozone in particular becomes a problem during the summer months, when temperatures rise and the air becomes stagnant, or still. Increased levels of ozone are one of the reasons air quality alerts tend to occur more frequently during the summer. Ozone causes inflammation, or swelling, in the lungs and airways, narrowing the passages for air to travel.

According to the American Lung Association, more than half of all Americans — some 166 million people — live in a county where they are exposed to unhealthy levels of ozone and other pollutants.

Get Wise to the AQI

The Air Quality Index, or AQI, is a way for health officials to clearly communicate how healthy or unhealthy the air is in a given region, and what types of precautions residents of those regions should take.

The AQI offers five color-coded categories to help easily determine the safety of the outside air:

• Green (Good) – Air pollution poses little or no risk
• Yellow (Moderate) – A moderate health concern for a very small number of people
• Orange (Unhealthy for sensitive groups) – Most people are unlikely to be affected, but older adults and children are at increased risk; people with lung disease are at a greater risk when ozone reaches this level, and those with heart and lung disease are at increased risk when particulates reach this level
• Red (Unhealthy). Everyone may begin to experience some adverse health effects, and sensitive groups may have more serious effects
• Purple (Very Unhealthy). This category triggers a health alert, meaning everyone may have more serious health effects
  Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH)

You can check the quality of the air in your location by monitoring local weather reports, as well as through online resources. AirNow.gov, a site operated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for instance, allows you to search for the air quality in your area by state or by ZIP code.

When the AQI indicates unhealthy air, avoid exercising or working outdoors. If you have a child with breathing problems, find activities he or she can enjoy doing inside, like going to a library or walking at a local mall.

Your Indoor Sanctuary

Since unhealthy outdoor air means spending more time indoors, it’s important to protect the integrity of the air in your home or workplace.

Do not allow guests, loved ones or colleagues to smoke indoors. Use the air conditioner and keep the windows closed. Consider locating and changing out the filters in your HVAC system. Keep up with dusting and vacuuming (with a HEPA filter) to further cut down on indoor irritants. Don’t just dust tabletops, either; look for other places dust accumulates, like window blinds. Cutting down on mold and mildew by regularly cleaning your bathroom and other damp areas will help maintain your indoor air quality as well.

You can also speak with your medical provider about the possibility of going on a daily controller medicine that can help reduce inflammation from irritants like ozone and air pollution. It’s also important to keep a bronchodilator — such as albuterol — with you to help with inflammation flare-ups.

If you do have to be outdoors, try to limit your activity to the early morning and late evening, when air pollution levels tend to improve.

Advice to Keep In Mind

A common misconception about bad air days is that the effects of the bad air are immediate. While some effects may occur right away, exposure to unhealthy air may take days to cause symptoms, and those symptoms may take weeks to improve.

Regular exposure to unhealthy air can produce health effects that last months or years, including inflammation, coughing, wheezing, watery eyes and even feelings of exhaustion.

It’s a good idea to speak with your medical provider, allergy and asthma specialist or a pulmonary medicine specialist to discuss a plan for helping you catch your breath this summer. By being aware and proactive, you can be sure that this summer’s bad air will breeze by with little impact to your quality for life.

West Georgia Lung and Sleep Medicine is located in Carrollton. For more information, visit www.pcgofwestga.com or call 770-838-5864.