Houston Health Department Urges Children, People with Respiratory Illness to Avoid Outdoor Exertion

The Houston Health Department is recommending active children and adults and people with lung disease such as asthma avoid all outdoor exertion. Everyone else, especially children, should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.

Saturday will be the third consecutive day with a forecast calling for an ozone action alert in Houston.

An air quality monitor in southwest Houston Friday afternoon read 201 parts per billion for ozone, the highest one-hour spike in Houston and Texas since Oct. 23, 2003. The reading is “very unhealthy.” The one-hour standard for ozone is 125 ppb.

Friday’s high readings are occurred despite fewer cars on the road. A recent analysis found commercial driving activity down 88 percent in Houston because of the storm: https://www.geotab.com/blog/hurricane-harvey-telematics-data-timelapse/