Ozone (O3) has antioxidant effects. Are we missing it?
Ozone as an antioxidant? Oh no? It is a strong oxidizing agent! Toxic. The safe concentration in the air is set at just 120 micrograms per cubic meter. In the summer, we hear warnings that the level of ground-level ozone is too high, that is, in cities where there is a lot of pollution. So how is it? I have already written several times on this blog that things are usually not so simple and straightforward, because the devil hides in the details. But it is interesting how dogma once established is persistently defended without taking into account more recent findings. So what about ozone? Take a look, for example, at this graph showing an example of the measured values of ground-level ozone in the Czech Republic, in the mountains and in cities. Two typical daily curves can be seen on it, the lower one you might guess is from an environment with clean air, i.e. from a rural or mountain environment. But it's not, it's from industrial areas. From the mountains (about 3000 ft above