{"id":273128,"date":"2026-05-16T04:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273128\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T04:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:18:07","slug":"air-pollution-precaution-in-place-for-pinellas-sarasota-counties-due-to-elevated-ozone-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273128\/","title":{"rendered":"Air pollution precaution in place for Pinellas, Sarasota counties due to elevated ozone | What to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Both counties issued the advisory effective Friday afternoon, citing that pollution could reach unhealthy levels for sensitive groups.<\/p>\n<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 An air pollution precaution is in place for Pinellas and Sarasota counties due to elevated levels of ozone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Both counties issued the advisory effective Friday afternoon, citing that pollution could reach unhealthy levels for sensitive groups, such as people with respiratory ailments and asthma, older adults and children. Those who are most vulnerable are recommended to limit their outdoor activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The weather conditions, including sunshine, high temperatures and low relative humidity, resulted in the formation of ozone concentrations corresponding to a slightly higher index than the typical \u201cgood\u201d range,&#8221; Sarasota County officials wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The advisory is in effect for Sarasota County until midnight Friday, and the general public is not likely to be affected.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Pinellas County officials say the alert will remain in effect throughout the day, and Saturday will likely have a moderate air quality index, although air pollution concentration is not expected to be as high.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/article\/weather\/forecast\/tampa-st-pete-weather-forecast\/67-489786259\" class=\"cms__embed-related-story__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">10 Tampa Bay Weather: Less humidity Friday before storm chances return this weekend<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nWhat is Ozone?                    <\/p>\n<p>According to the Environmental Protection Agency, ozone is an odorless, colorless gas that is both natural and man-made, depending on where it&#8217;s found in the atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s formed when pollutants emitted by cars and industrial sources react in the presence of sunlight, which is why ozone is most likely to reach unhealthy levels on hot, sunny days.<\/p>\n<p>Exposure to ozone can cause:<\/p>\n<p>CoughingSore or scratchy throatDifficulty or pain when taking a deep breathInflamed or damaged airways                    <\/p>\n<p>The EPA says it can also make lungs more susceptible to infection or aggravate lung diseases like asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Both counties issued the advisory effective Friday afternoon, citing that pollution could reach unhealthy levels for sensitive groups.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-273128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}