Himalayan Climbers Face Ozone Levels Comparable To Dirty Cities

[hatrack]

Climbers who have trouble breathing near the top of Everest might be suffering from more than thin air. Research shows the Tibetan plateau is surrounded by a ring of ozone in comparable concentration to that in a heavily-polluted city, putting climbers at risk .

For mountaineers struggling up the biggest Himalayan peaks such as Everest and K2, this extra dose of ozone could be devastating. "Ozone is very unstable and reacts with any surface of substance. Breathing high concentrations of ozone causes coughing, chest pain and damage to the lining throughout the lung," said John Semple, a plastic surgeon from the University of Toronto, and a keen mountaineer who first measured the ozone concentration around the plateau.

In autumn last year, Dr Semple was climbing the Yeli La pass in Bhutan while measuring the level of ozone. He found it increased as he climbed. Usually pollution gets less as you climb out of it, but in this case the ozone levels increased with height, which was not what we expected," said Kent Moore, a physicist at the University of Toronto.

Dr Moore looked at satellite measurements of ozone over the plateau for October to November, for the years 1997 to 2004, in an attempt to explain Dr Semple's findings. "The measurements showed ozone was at a minimum over Tibet, but that around the periphery there was a halo of high ozone values," said Dr Moore.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1643398,00.html

[NNadir]

1. I have read so as to believe it, that Mount Everest has become a huge

garbage dump, littered with empty oxygen bottles and other human garbage and waste. I think ozone is a relatively minor problem there.

The ozone levels in Los Angeles, last time I looked, didn't seem to keep many people out of Los Angeles. I doubt ozone will keep many people off Everest, which in a way is a terrible shame.

[JohnWxy]

2. WOW! I MISSED THIS. HOW MANY OTHERS DID?

Staggering information!

THank you for this post!